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Author
Geoffrey Chaucer
Directed
by
Gregory Doran
Rebecca Catward
Jonathan Munby
Designed
by
Michael Vale
Music
by
Adrian Lee
Chaucer
Mark Hadfield
Nicholas
Edward Hughes
The
Host
Barry McCarthy
The
Miller
Joshua Richards
The
Knight
Christopher
Saul
The
Cook
Darren Tunstall
And members
of the RSC
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Gielgud
Theatre
Royal
Shakespeare Company
25
Sep - 4 Nov 2006 |
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All life
meets on Chaucer's pilgrimage
to Canterbury, as his Tales
prove: tales of piety and
bawdry, humour and tragedy,
reality and fantasy, full
of gleeful wit and pungent
insights. Most of the pilgrims
who set out from the Tabard
Inn in Southwark are in need
of the merit that a visit
to the "holy blissful
martyr" brings, and they
all seek shriving. But they
are not above a certain amount
of swiving beforehand, and
in this rumbustious version
of the Tales they go to it
with gusto.
Mike Poulton's adaptation
is a success: it is funny
and energetic while remaining
faithful to the original in
feel and content. It gives
the actors full scope to enjoy
themselves, and they do: which
means that the audience does
so too. This is unabashedly
theatre as fun, but it keeps
alive the spirit of a classic,
and it iterates a truth: that
the human comedy remains the
same in essence in all times
and places, and the classics
connect those times and places
into the great chain of being
that makes us what we are.
This production is full of
vigour and spirit. In the
Miller's Tale bare bottoms
duly appear in the appropriate
place, because without them
the jokes of the kiss and
the ring cannot work, and
this is theatre that truly
works. When the carpenter
gets his revenge on the miller,
there is much swiving under
the bedclothes in uproarious
fashion. On the night this
was seen, a distinguished
Nobel laureate (of literature)
was in the audience, and she
was beside herself with laughter:
a party of school children,
boldly brought by their preceptors,
were in stitches likewise;
evidently, Chaucer and the
RSC had worked their joint
magic across the board.
AC
Grayling |
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