PREVIEW: The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Baron’s Court Theatre 7 March 2023

‘A spirited rebirth of Shakespeare’s most-neglected play.’

It’s a tall order to take on what many feel to be the weakest play in the Bard’s canon, but thanks to an intelligent transplant from the play’s original setting of pre-modern Northern Italy to a series of contemporary British secondary schools, along with an excellent showing from a multi-talented cast, Evan L. Barker’s adaptation of THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA proves a spirited rebirth of Shakespeare’s most-neglected play.

There are some good reasons the original play has failed to be remembered; although it features many of the trademarks that made Shakespeare the patron saint of English playwriting, from the frequently witty wordplay to the strong archetypal characters that scheme and clash in complex inter-relations of love and power, it also features some of his less celebrated habits. This is most notable in the character of Proteus, an Iago-like figure whose manipulations of the other characters sets the entirety of the play’s drama into motion when he decides to seduce Sylvia, the betrothed of his best friend Valentine. High drama indeed, but one that is barely grounded in the original and is bizarrely forgiven at a moment’s notice at the play’s conclusion, as if Shakespeare’s producers had forced a happy ending.

But it is exactly this love triangle and the fast-rising/fast-fading affections that accompany it that Barker embraces by setting the play in the contemporary school system. No more are the characters emotionally immature adults, but naive teenagers bumbling through the first pangs of love, and far more sympathy can be afforded to these overgrown children stuffed into school uniforms than could ever be offered to their originals (the uniforms themselves proving a definite highlight as the ‘bandits’ of the original emerge as baggy-trousered roadmen huffing nitrous from balloons). The only downside to this transplant is that it starts to break down when one really thinks about it. For instance, why is the headmaster of the Milan school (formerly the Duke of Milan) so concerned with which of his students gets to marry Sylvia? Why do both schools appear to have the same janitor? And where, oh where, are the parents? With a little more tweaking, these nagging questions could be quieted, and the conceit fully delivered on.

Fortunately, the play works quite well moment to moment as one engages with the immediate performances, which proceed in delightful succession. On the night the actors took full advantage of every nook and cranny of the intimate venue, playing to all sides of the room and running on and off stage with the intense energy of over-eager teens, juggling joviality and sobriety as needed while Shakespeare’s classic mix of comedy and tragedy played out. Each act was well bookended by Launce (Harry Rose) who provided excellent comic relief in the single best costume of the night (a janitors overalls covered in rude graffiti written by the other characters), while Julia (Tor Leijten) and Speed (Alun Rees) in particular energized the stage whenever they were present. I’d be remiss as well if I didn’t mention how Lucetta (Izzi McCormack-John) delivered the best lines of the night, expertly muttered in plain English after delivering her own lines in the often archaic dialect of the original text.

By and large it’s all plain sailing until the ending, which is perhaps the main reason the play is so rarely performed. In the original text, Proteus’ schemes are ultimately frustrated so he decides to force himself upon Sylvia, only to be interrupted by Valentine and his spurned lover Julia. Despite the depravity of Proteus’ actions, the characters all promptly kiss and make up, ending the play. Not so in this production: Sylvia is rescued, but this time the altercation becomes physical, the actors switching immediately to plain English as they confront Proteus with raw invective, who cries back, articulating the motives for his villainous actions that are so sorely absent from the original text. This is wonderfully abrupt, taking the audience by surprise in the best way possible and showing clear inventiveness along with a desire to tackle the text’s fundamental weaknesses, but it happens so quickly that one barely has a chance to register it before the play quickly wraps up. A striking and effective innovation upon the original, but one that needs a little more room to breathe.

All in all, though, the preview proved that this oft-neglected Shakespearean drama has plenty to offer a modern audience, and with some small refinements here and there a winning production is assuredly on the cards.

THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA & SONNET 104 showing in Baron’s Court Theatre 7th March 2023

Produced by BO15 Productions Ltd alongside The Messy Kind Collective

Written by William Shakespeare

Director: Evan L. Barker

Reviewed by Harry Conway