Edward II
RSC, Swan Theatre
THE FULL pomp and ceremony of royal history bookends this powerful production of Marlowe’s Edward II, disguising perhaps to public scrutiny the base machinations which lurks between.
Opening with a tableau of the catafalque of the dead king around which the arriving audience can respectfully take a leisurely, if slightly confused, turn there is a grandeur and elegance about the uniforms, regalia and clerical splendour.
All good on the surface, but it is the unrefined urgings of human passion and ambition lurking beneath the veneer which drive this play and which are revealed in absolute candour in Daniel Raggett’s bold staging.
Uniforms quickly become shirt sleeves and braces, episcopal finery is torn and discarded and the bickering commences. Legate of Rome tries to trump king, monarch disregards bishop, nobles dismiss monarch and so on.
Against this backdrop of political ambition and false loyalty, Edward’s undisguised love for the frankly oiled and ripped Gaveston provides not only a moral question for all but the opportunity to use it for personal advancement.
Daniel Evans and Eloka Ivo make for an intriguing couple whose attraction and love crosses not just culture and the age barrier but époque as well, Galveston and his cohorts coming full-swagger from the sharp-suited modern times.
Eschewing any suggestion of keeping this affair under wraps, the blossoming love is as unashamed and in-your-face as current tastes might wish it.
Elsewhere there is good support from a clutch of nobles who, for all their occasional interchangeability, carry the rivalries and plots forward without losing pace. Enzo Cilenti as Mortimer particularly catches the eye. Ruta Gedmintas as Queen Isabella also shines in what is effectively a fairly thankless role.
Leslie Travers’ design reflects the division of ‘above and below’ with the palace floor literally swept back to open up the dank, dirty pit in which the king’s final moments will be played out.
The violent deaths of Galveston and Edward are afforded a brutality which, for all their slightly balletic beauty, are as shocking as we’ve come to expect at the RSC.
Given an almost filmic level of gloom and stage fog and played in one unbroken chunk this is a tough but rewarding watch. Only the unceasing and equally unwelcome soundtrack of ‘ominous tension with occasional low thump’ really hits the wrong note.
In current times we’ve grown inured to indignity in our royal masters and betters, their failings and indiscretions are our daily gossip. But this productions at least serves to remind us that, when someone at the top puts a foot wrong there are plenty standing by more than happy to benefit from the scandal.
Visit rsc.org.uk for performance and ticket details.
Matthew Salisbury
