GEORGIANS IN THE PINK, AND SOMEWHAT PUNK
Sheridan’s social satire from the 1770s hits the age of faux information, viral reputation-trashing and post-imperial embarrassment. There are understanding readjusted gags, witty cringes of embarrassment at any time when anybody’s East Indies wealth is talked about, artfully tailored doggerel pre & post-ludes and a few effective Dad-dance choreography to drum-synth rhythms to replace the harpsichord. But no modernization was not going to deprive us of 18c spectacle, no sir! We are reassured about that from the primary second, when the solid rise from the ground led by Siubhan Harrison as Lady Sneerwell in a towering Mr-Whippy wig and pannier skirts so extensive that – to normal applause – all her entrances and exits alongside the walkways need to be executed scuttling sideways.
Alex Lowde’s designs are certainly a riot: if – as I like to recommend – you ebook in with a gang of mates or household or, God assist us, a hen night time, it may be enjoyable for everybody to decorate in violent pink, with edges of black and champagne. The two worst villains – sinuous Snake the letter-forger and hypocritical Joseph Surface- are each in black, however everybody else female and male is usually fairly riotous and admittedly camp. Rarely will you see a extra preposterous show of hip-popping hetero-camp than in John Leader’s dissipated hero Charles, although Patrick Walshe McBride performs him shut because the simpering poet Benjamin Backbite. As for Mrs Candour’s outfit, phrases fail me.
They by no means, after all, fail her. Sheridan is a magnificently, rattlingly wordly playwright and director Tinuke Craig’s solid give the rhetoric, expostulation and rapidfire dialogue a crackling power . The plot is acquainted down the centuries: hypocrisy, plots to show it, lies each malicious and absurd, decency triumphant ultimately, however the Brinsley Sheridan option to deal with it’s with the lightness of pink meringue. Craig responds to this spirit by treating the entire thing extra as a lark than offended satire: there’s little actual darkness. The well-known set-pieces are terrific: I loved the scornful public sale of Charles’ ancestral portraits (sharp for the interval, or certainly any time in our time-lag, class-aware monarchy). There’s a effective display screen scene with the hidden Lady Teazle, previously a contemptuous shopaholic party-girl, immediately understanding the devoted decency of her older husband. Tara Tijani does each moments fantastically.
The enjoyable rollicks on, pleasingly ridiculous and spectacular, and the physicality is a delight. The servants whip round in unusual pajama fits, making themselves felt within the narration; Stefan Adegbola illustrates Joseph’s pious hypocrisy in good interval type by continually falling into Garrick-y poses to ship his ethical precepts. Leader’s Charles drops the camp wriggling when he must, and shades it right into a mere overspill of teenage power; Geoffrey Streatfeild is a correctly touching Peter Teazle and Wil Johnson overdoes it simply sufficient as his stately colonial millionaire Sir Oliver masquerades in flip as a moneylender and a needy relative.
It’s enjoyable, sportingly foolish, and will get good previous Sheridan’s ethical level residence although with out with all of the painless feathery swish of the ostrich plumes which tower over the women’ heads. A particular point out for whoever obtained Walshe McBride to put on his hair like that.
Rsc.org. To 6 september
ranking 4
