Lorna Irvine reviews an experimental production gone wrong.
Dungarees! Backflips! An elegy delivered by a woman wearing a clown nose! Beer! Distortion! A middle-aged man in gold Kylie-style hotpants!
An anarchic spirit permeates Filter Theatre's reinterpretation of the Shakespeare satire on class and etiquette. However, it's one extended in-joke too far: one hour and thirty minutes of the kind of contrived experimentalism that seemed dated in the eighties.
The very capable actors and musicians who make up the ensemble are clearly enjoying themselves, and there's no faulting their energy levels, but a lack of any linear structure in favour of constant interruptions, sketchy musical interludes and general fannying about becomes an unwelcome wacky distraction. Often it's impossible to even hear the dialogue.
When anything resembling a clear narrative appears, audience participation is thrown in—so tequila slammers are downed, conga lines formed and silly hats donned. One trick involving catching fluffy balls on a hat (steady!) is well executed. Sarah Belcher brings real presence to Viola/ Sebastian and Geoffrey Lumb's debauched Sir Toby has an amusing swagger (the only one in Elizabethan garb), but in the main, it is a waste of talent.
To paraphrase the Bard himself:
Some adaptations of Shakespeare are born great
Some have greatness thrust upon them
And some, as with this, merely grate.
At the Citizens until February 1 before continuing on tour.
RSS