The Two Gentlemen of Verona RSC Review and Synopsis Stratford-upon-Avon

The Two Gentlemen of Verona DVD is now avilable for pre-order from RSC http://www.rsc.org.uk/shop/item/63176-the-two-gentlemen-of-verona-dvd-2015/
 

Post by Royal Shakespeare Company.

Two Gents is one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies and possibly one of the rarest in terms of RSC productions, on their main stage. Having seen the play in the Swan Theatre, twice in recent years, there are problems in staging this awkward text, but later works often categorised as 'problem' plays are regularly performed, so why not The Two Gentlemen of Verona? This play whose verse is recognisably that of Shakespeare and is of some merit, should surely find a home in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. This production is warm, humorous and enjoyable, though a disturbing cynicism underlies this comedy of young love.
On entering the auditorium, you are greeted by a busy slice of contemporary Italian street-life. Antonio's restaurant sprawls across the stage, filling the space with white metal tables and chairs, laid out before an impressive facade with an elegant balcony above. The stage is peopled by the whole cast, who are busy acting out happy meetings, sad departures, fierce arguments and petty thefts. Adding to the spectacle are the audience, invited onto the stage by a jovial host, they collect ice-creams from a vendor and wander back to the stalls, indistinguishable from the actors that surround them. High above them luminous red hearts are strung across the stage.

We soon discover the setting is sleepy Verona; far from adventure or opportunity. Two friends, Valentine and Proteus discuss their plans, Valentine is to leave, in search of adventure in the Court of the Duke of Milan. His friend is lovelorn and will not abandon Julia, who it seems, is his heart's desire. The two friends bid farewell and we must congratulate the director, as Valentine departs without the aid of a Vespa or a Fiat 500.
Valentine's servant Speed arrives with news of a letter Proteus has given him to deliver to Julia, sheep based word-play is sustained for a surprisingly long period of time. We then encounter Julia and her maid Lucetta who discuss potential suitors, in a scene often repeated in later plays, bringing to mind Juliet and her nurse. Lucetta favours Proteus, which is as Julia would wish, and produces his letter that she has intercepted. Julia and Lucetta fight over the letter, which Julia tears to shreds before she has read its contents. The interplay between the garrulous banter of Leigh Quinn and the innocence of Pearl Chanda, is well observed and typifies the excellent ensemble acting that permeates this new production. Julia is left alone on stage gathering the fragments of the letter from Proteus; stamping on her own offending name, she muses on how a play might be constructed from disparate parts, as she attempts to place the torn paper in a coherent order, an Elizabethan William S. Burroughs.

Antonio is persuaded that his son Proteus should follow Valentine to Milan and gain polish from the sophistication of the Duke's Court. This parts Proteus and Julia, who are seen stealthily exiting her apartments at dawn. They exchange rings, a familiar plot devise oft repeated in later plays.the plot closely resembles that of All's Well.

Meanwhile, Valentine is very much at home amid the traffic roar and disco lights of Milan. Gone is the elegant restaurant facade leaving the beautiful Rococo balcony with two flights of steps sweeping upwards to meet it. The daughter of the Duke, one Silvia, has caught the young man's eye, the Duke of Milan intends his daughter will be married to his friend Turio.
The self-possessed Silvia, Sarah MacRae, has instructed Valentine to compose a letter which she intends to send to a suitor and is disappointed by his spiritless composition, he has failed to realise that he is, in fact, writing a letter to himself.

Enter Luance, Roger Morlidge, pursued by the villainous Crab, a dog of few social graces. At which point the audience becomes fixated on the charming dog and any dramatic tension dissipates. The dog however, rises to the occasion, seeming to relish being on stage and apparently unfazed by the large crowd. Perhaps a less compliant mutt would be better casting for Crab, who considers an hour spent without embarrassing his master, as an hour wasted. Launce enacts his tearful departure from home, substituting shoes for his mother and father, thereby emphasising the insouciance of Crab, who shed not a tear.

Valentine and Turio are arguing in the presence of Silvia and Speed. Speed is hoping to goad the suitors and start a fight. The Duke enters with the news that Proteus will soon arrive in Milan. Proteus greets he oldest friend and is introduced to Silvia, who has heard that Proteus is a paragon of fidelity and elegant manners. The friends are left alone, Valentine reveals his enrolment in the school of love, he too is no longer heart-whole, for Silvia holds him captive. Valentine declares that Silvia's beauty exceeds all others, but Proteus will not concede her supremacy. Hoping for advice; Valentine discloses a plan to elope with Silvia, using a rope ladder to scale the wall beneath her chamber window, but Proteus merely makes an excuse and suggests they can talk later. As Valentine leaves the stage Proteus turns to the audience and declares his love for Silvia, she has instantly displaced Julia. At this point Mark Arends stares down the startled audience, who have begun to laugh at this sudden alienation of affection, he is in earnest. At least the lovers in A Midsummer Night's Dream had the juice of a western flower to excuse their changeable allegiances, but poor Rosaline still waits for Romeo to call.
Launce and Crab arrive in Milan, where they are greeted by Speed, who is keen to know how Proteus fares with Julia. They consult Crab whose tail wagging confirms the two lovers are engaged.
Protueus wonders whether love or friendship has the greater hold over his will and decides to follow his passion, betraying Julia and Valentine in pursuit of Silvia. He will warn Milan, thus preventing the elopement and winning favour with the Duke and gaining access to Silvia as an advocate for Turio.
We return to Verona, enter Julia and Lucetta, Julia has an open bottle of champagne, her maid has a bottle of wine. Julia plans to disguise herself as a boy in order to follow her love to Milan, Lucetta suggests she waits at home until he returns. The transgressive nature of a male disguise at the time of the play's writing, as amply demonstrated in The Roaring Girl, is perhaps lessened by the contemporary setting of this production.
Proteus reveals Valentine's plan to the Duke; apparently unable to suppress his duty to his noble host, though it might be at the cost of an older friendship. The Duke intercepts Valentine and insists he should advise him on how to negotiate a delicate problem. The Duke reveals he is so alienated from his daughter, who refuses to marry Turio, that he proposes to remarry. However, his mistress is coy and he seeks advice from Valentine, who is only too willing to act as tutor, even recommending a ladder of cords with which to scale the wall and reach her bedroom, in the seclusion of night. The Duke will hear more of this scheme and asks how such a ladder could be concealed. Valentine is late for his own elopement  and attempts to curtail the interview suggesting the Duke might use a cloak or in this case a mac, to cover the rope. The persistent Duke insists on trying Valentine's mac for size, of course he discovers both a letter to Silva and a rope ladder concealed in the pockets. A splendidly apoplectic Duke, Jonny Glynn, banishes the young suitor on pain of death.
Launce reappears to speak of his love for a milk maid, with the usual combination of brutal wordplay and broad mime.
The Duke steps into the snare that Proteus has set, employing him to further the suit of Turio, thus providing ample opportunity to further his own lovemaking.
Valentine's retreat from the wrath of the Duke leads the banished lover and his servant into a dark wood somewhere between Milan and Mantua. Here, he encounters a rather implausible band of outlaws. They owe something to Robin Hood, but are clad in modern camouflage gear and trap their victims using a large and rather conspicuous net. Valentine impresses the brigands by suggesting he had been banished for killing a man. During his capture he reveals a knowledge of Russian and a facility in other languages, which is, apparently, the direction of travel in the competitive world of highway robbery. The outlaws are seeking a new leader and present Valentine with an impressive range of options, either become their boss or be executed. Valentine will join them as long as they do not prey on women or the poor. Surely these army surplus robbers might more plausibly have been depicted as Camorra holed up in their rustic HQ.
Back in Milan, Proteus has organised a band of musicians  to help Turio serenade beneath Silvia's window. There follows a truly comic tour de force as Nicholas Gerard Martin converts the wistful Ode to Silvia into a power ballad, culminated by throwing roses at the balcony.
At this point Julia appears disguised as Sebastian, in a suit and tie, with her long hair cut mannishly short. She is in time to witness Proteus pressing his claims on the unfortunate Silvia, as soon as Turio is out of earshot.

Silvia is shocked that Proteus will betray his friend and abandon Julia, Proteus claims that Julia is dead. At that moment, Julia , though in disguise, would surely betray some  of the horror she must feel, in this preview Pearl Chanda seems impassive, possibly too shocked to react. Proteus asks if he can have a portrait of Silvia which hangs in her bedroom and Silvia agrees, as Proteus is a lover of shadows and false idols.
Silvia seeks the assistance of a noble knight Sir Eglamour, chaste since the death of his own wife, to escape Milan in search of Valentine in the dangerous world beyond. They are to  meet at a Friar Patrick's cell.
There follows the much anthologised scene between Launce and the recalcitrant Crab. Launce has been sent to Silvia to present Crab as a gift, but true to form Crab has disgraced himself. The dog only escapes a whipping when his soft-hearted master takes the blame and is whipped himself.
Proteus meets Sebastian/Julia and engages her to deliver the ring she gave him, to his new love Silvia. When Silvia and Sebastian meet, Silvia recognises the ring and is enraged that Proteus will treat a token from his dead love, so lightly. Sebastian commends Silva's sympathy towards Julia and Silvia asks if he knew her, he claims to have worn one of her dresses in the Pentecost pageant.
Eglamour, an impressive performance by Youssef Kerkour, and Sylvia meet and depart disguised as monks.
Proteus is quizzing Sebastian about his meeting with Silvia when the Duke rushes in with news of his daughter's disappearance. Proteus, the Duke and Sebastian set out in pursuit of Silvia.
Silvia has been captured by Valentine's band of outlaws and dragged away. We encounter Valentine meditating on the joys of life in the Wild Wood, his thoughts are interrupted by Proteus, Silvia and Sebastian. Proteus has rescued Silvia and demands a single kind glance in recompense. Enraged by her rebuttal, he attempts to enforce his power over her. Valentine leaps from cover and confronts Proteus, thrusting his head into a conveniently placed butt of water, thereby ensuring I left the theatre damper than when I arrived. Proteus begs forgiveness and Valentine pardons him and then offers Silvia's hand to seal their reconciliation, don't try this at home. Sebastian is required to return the ring that Silvia rejected but accidentally returns the ring Proteus has given her in Verona. Thus, Sebastian's real identity is discovered and Proteus, proving his christening was no mistake, decides Julia was always his only true love.
The Duke and Turio arrive with the outlaws, Turio claims Silvia, but admits his indifference when Valentine threatens to kill him. Valentine asks the Duke to pardon his band of outlaws who were, it seems, victims of many miscarriages of justice. The speed with which one of them hides the watch he is wearing in his pocket undermines this claim, but they are forgiven and everyone departs to celebrate a double marriage.
As we file out of the theatre, the audience are clearly unhappy at the husband Julia is to marry, but this is a reaction common to several of Shakespeare's plays. Simon Godwin has produced an enjoyable evening's entertainment, with strong central performances and if some of the problems of this inconsistent text remain unresolved, so be it. The contemporary setting added much to the visual interest of the production and instantly engaged the audience, many of whom took to the stage, blending with the cast in the opening scene. Should Two Gents be produced more often, why not? For all its startling twists of plot, it is clearly by Shakespeare, as shown both in the quality of some of the verse and in the echoes of plays yet unwritten. Pearl Chanda gives a fine performance as Julia and the letter tearing scene is worthy of any of the latter plays. Mark Arends defies the illogical shifts of his protean character challenging the audience's disbelief with great success. Michael Marcus brings a thoughtful intelligence to Valentine and Sarah Macrae lends a strength of character and conviction to Silvia. Leigh Quinn is an admirable Lucetta, the perfect foil for Pearl Chanda and Martin Bassindale produces a convincing and likeable Speed. Roger Morlidge and partner Crab are an endearing double-act, proving that animals can work with humans.
We often see productions of The Comedy of Errors, another claimant for the honour of being the earliest surviving comedy, it works well on stage, but contains little of the lyrical essence of Shakespeare. Two Gents for all its flaws is clearly the template of later works and if the Royal Shakespeare Company do not stage it more often, who will?

Mark Arends - Proteus
Elliot Barnes-Worrell - Outlaw
Martin Bassindale - Speed
Pearl Chanda - Julia
Nicholas Gerard-Martin - Turio
Robert Gilbert - Outlaw
Jonny Glynn - The Duke of Milan
Molly Gromadzki - Host/Singer
Youssef Kerkour - Sir Eglamour
Sarah MacRae - Silvia
Michael Marcus - Valentine
Roger Morlidge - Launce
Mossup - Crab the Dog
Keith Osborn - Antonio
Leigh Quinn - Lucetta
Simon Yadoo - Panthino/Outlaw
Director - Simon Godwin
Designer - Paul Wills
Lighting - Bruno Poet
Music -  Michael Bruce
Sound - Christopher Shutt
Movement - Jonathan Goddard