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Theatre listings >
RSC ON TOUR
With Coriolanus and The Merry Wives Of Windsor.
Review with London and Tour,
including Scottish, dates.
Playwright - William Shakespeare.
Company - Royal Shakespeare Company.
These productions are presented in association with The University Musical
Society and The Univeristy of Michigan, Ann Arbour.USA.
London and Tour dates - Here
Scottish Venue and dates were - Barrhead Sports Centre, Main Street,
Barrhead, East Renfrewshire G78 1SW in the RSC Mobile Theatre see
article.
Dates - 1 April 7.30pm - 5 April
Seen to review at Swan Theatre, Stratford. These productions are touring
Britain these are the only Scottish dates.
Run Time with intervals - Coriolanus: 3hr 30min The Merry
Wives of Windsor 2hr 40min
Reviewer - Timothy Ramsden. Production and cast
details of both productions.
Back to basics, they're unbeatable.
This year, a contrast. Apart from being two Shakespeares the world knows
less well, what have this bourgeois comedy and aristo tragedy in common?
For one thing, Greg Hicks. His Coriolanus, in a fine production
by David Farr - apart from being tinged with Japanese colourings that
are either unnecessary or risible, but possibly meant to do away with
the trappings of toga tragedy in favour of another society seen as being
hierarchic - is a mightily contemptuous person. This Coriolanus is so
born and bred to superiority the muscles twitch automatically to indicate
contempt. No effort's needed. There is no thinking. Wealth and battle
prowess enable him almost to get away with it.
Today, he'd be a PR person's nightmare, unable to hide how he feels. Giving
the least time possible to the degrading ceremony of summoning public
support. Showing not a bit of interest while doing so. Coriolanus MP would
be impossible. He'd spit at you on the doorstep rather than kiss the common
cry of curs' babies.
See him then in Merry Wives as Dr Caius. There is a similarity,
in the unreflective self-confidence. But the differences are much greater
as Caius gesticulates and fumes, so skilfully you've hardly the heart
to realise this is one of Shakespeare's very unPC funny foreigners (as
usual in this play, an English audience's loudest laugh comes on the baleful
reference to a 'Welsh fairy'), Editor - will Scottish audiences do the
same? Seeing Coriolanus first in a day, there's an added humour as the
matinee's relentless hero lies grovelling desperately on the floor, his
sword flailing around with useless inexpertise.
Hicks (well known to Citizens' audiences) is far from the sole reason
for sampling the double. In a sense his opposite is Richard Cordery,
an imposing figure whose soft-spoken Menenius shows all the skills Coriolanus
lacks. Never one of the people, he can chat casually or impress with apparent
concern. He's a Willie Whitelaw, the acceptable face any modern party
would want first to explain their gaffs on TV.
His Falstaff is a wonderfully gullible figure. Towering over those around,
he falls for the tricks played on him with smiling self-confidence. Tom
Mannion - RSAMD graduate well-known from the Royal Lyceum, Traverse
and Communicado - foregoes the barely disguised fury which gave the Brook/Falstaff
scenes such hilarity in the RSC's classic production with Brewster Mason
and Ian Richardson over 30 years ago. It's a gift of a situation: a jealous
husband in disguise, trying to persuade the man he thinks is his wife's
lover to help him gain access to her too.
But, in the 1950s setting of Rachel Kavanaugh's amiable production, overhung
by Tudorbethan window-frames, Mannion's civil servant turning the
house upside down, each time still missing Sir John's giant frame, is
a comic figure, bewildered and deflated.
There's strong company work throughout and the Swan stage - like the venues
on this extensive tour - rightly throws the emphasis on to the acting.
When the RSC stops having grand plans to turn Stratford-upon-Avon into
a theme park and gets back to basics, they're unbeatable.
© Timothy Ramsden 2003. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
2003 RSC Tour and London dates
4 - 8 Feb Northallerton Hambleton Leisure Centre Stonecross 01609 777070
11 - 15 Feb Warrington Birchwood Leisure Complex 01925 442345
18 March - 22 March Ollerton Dukeries Leisure Centre 0115 419419 or 01623
862469
25 - 29 March Dorchester Dorchester Arts Centre at the Thomas Hardye Leisure
Centre 01305 266926
1 - 5 April Glasgow Barrhead Sports Centre 0141 5774970
8 - 12 April Sunderland Seaburn Centre 0191 5141235
22 - 26 April Portsmouth The Mountbatten Centre 023 9269 0011
29 April - 3 May Sandwell Haden Hill Leisure Centre 01384 812812
6 - 10 May Burgess Hill The Triangle 01444 876060
13 - 17 May Spalding Castle Sports Complex 01775 725031
20 - 24 May Kendal Leisure Centre 01539 729702
27 May - 31 May Truro Hall for Cornwall 01872 262466
London at Old Vic 3 June - 24 August 2003 booking from 28 April
onwards on RSC Ticket Hotline number: 0870 609 1110.
Production and cast details for Coriolanus
See below for Merry Wives details.
Director - David Farr
Set/Costumes - Ti Green
Season Stage Design - Ti Green, Peter McIntosh
Lighting - Hartley T A Kemp
Music - Keith Clouston
Movement - Lorna Marshall
Fights - Terry King
Martial Arts Instructor - Alasdair Monteith
Sound - Gregory Clarke
Music Director - Bruce O'Neil
Assistant Director - Tiffany Watt-Smith
Dialect Coach - Charmian Hoare .
Cast Members and roles for Coriolanus
Caius Martius, Coriolanus - Greg Hicks
Volumnia - Alison Fiske
Virgilia - Hannah Young
Young Martius - Oscar Powell/Alexander Thompson
Valeria - Claire Carrie
Gentlewoman - Kate Best
Menenius - Richard Cordery
Cominius - David Killick
Titus Lartius - Kieron Jecchinis
First Senator - Patrick Romer
Sicinius Velutus - Tom Mannion
Junius Brutus - Simon Coates
First Citizen - Lindsey Fawcett
Citizens - Kate Best, Claire Carrie, Richard Copestake, Michael Gardiner,
Adam Kay, Ciaran McIntyre, Karl Morgan, James O'Donnell, Patrick Romer,
Lucy Tregear
Officers in the Senate - Karl Morgan, James O'Donnell
Herald - Adam Kay
Tullus Aufidius - Chuk Iwuji
First Volscian Senator - Michael Gardiner
Second Volscian Senator - Ciaran McIntyre
Lieutenant - Karl Morgan
Volscian Watch - Richard Copestake, Kieron Jecchinis
Volscian Servingmen - Adam Kay, Karl Morgan, James O'Donnell
Musicians:
Keyboard/Percussion/Accordion Bruce O'Neil
Fife/Flute/Recorders/Percussion Lisa Mallett
Percussion Kevin Waterman
Production and cast details forThe
Merry Wives Of Windsor.
Director Rachel Kavanaugh
Staging Designers Peter McKintosh/Ti Green
Set/Costumes Designer Peter McKintosh
Lighting Hartley T A Kemp
Music Terry Davies
Movement Scarlett Mackmin
Sound Gregory Clarke
Music Director Bruce O' Neil
Assistant Director Samantha Potter
Dialect Coach Charmian Hoare
Musicians:
Keyboards/Accordion Bruce O' Neil
Flutes/Whistles/Saxophone Lisa Mallett
Percussion Kevin Waterman
Cast Members and roles forTHE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
Robert Shallow - David Killick
Abraham Slender - Adam Kay
Peter Simple - Karl Morgan
Sir John Falstaff - Richard Cordery
Robin - Lindsey Fawcett
Bardolph - Ciaran McIntyre
Nym - Richard Copestake
Pistol - Kieron Jecchinis
George Page - Simon Coates
Meg Page - Lucy Tregear
Anne Page - Hannah Young
William Page - David Jowett/Daniel Ciotkowski
Frank Ford - Tom Mannion
Alice Ford - Claire Carrie
Sir Hugh Evans - Michael Gardiner
Host of the Garter Inn - Patrick Romer
Dr Caius - Greg Hicks
John Rugby - James O'Donnell
Mistress Quickly - Alison Fiske
Fenton - Chuk Iwuji
Robert - Richard Copestake
John - Kieron Jecchinis
Lady of Windsor - Kate Best
Her Daughter- Hannah Jowett/Florence Carruthers
Green Fairy - Damian Storey/Ben Chase
White Ghost - Edward Turner/Jake Whittingham
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