Image: Tim Morozzo“Ladies, an announcement: I am up for it, all the time”. You may not like the Second Earl of Rochester. But you will not be able to take your eyes off him. Read more …
London in the 1670s - Charles II is on the throne, Nell Gwynn is in his bed, and the theatre and sexual promiscuity are flourishing.
‘The Libertine’ by Stephen Jeffreys is the true story of John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester - a hedonistic poet, playwright and rake whose appetite for women and wine has made him a notorious figure. He is a man who does not feel alive unless he exceeds every limit. He’s not easy to like, much less to love. Yet this most charismatic of sinners is forced to reconsider everything he thinks and feels when a chance encounter at the Playhouse sends him reeling.
With all the wit, flair and bawdiness of a Restoration Comedy, this brilliant play is both historical romp and incisive critique of an age of excess. Made famous through the film of the same name starring Johnny Depp and John Malkovich, this is the first major stage production in the UK since its London premiere.
A corset-ripping 16+ only
t might be tempting to expect something of a morality tale from the Citizens’ new production of The Libertine by Steven Jeffreys, but there is much, much more to it than that.
In our own age of austerity, Rochester's battle with decadence is not the most pressing of dilemmas, but the swagger and pace of this richly acted production give it life and urgency.
Never quite as shocking as it wants to be, The Libertine is a nevertheless a boisterous romp of a show that revels in its Restoration-era trappings and a cast of lurid characters to ensure a hugely enjoyable night out.
Life and art, artifice and truth, attention-seeking and self-loathing and the addictive allure of all of these are at the heart of a work that gives its subject the immortality he craved at last.
This outstanding 20th-anniversary production demands one’s attention as surely as did its subject in his raucous heyday.
Yet in truth, not all the glory of Dominic Hill’s production – Tom Piper’s gorgeous, dusty sets, Lizzie Powell’s moody lighting, or a series of fine performances in supporting roles – can save this play from its tedious bourgeois obsession with the centrality of male art and ego as embodied by a character who tells us at the outset how little we will care about his fate, and then spends a long three hours proving himself dead right.
By turns stridently bawdy, uproariously humorous and deeply philosophical, this intelligent and, more importantly, emotionally absorbing production is every inch what used to be called (in the Seventies and Eighties, and with due reverence) a “Citizens Play”.
Comes across as extremely unfocused.
Jeffrey’s script is wonderfully barbed, but, despite fine casting, self-reflexive scenes and some amusing moments, this production is unfortunately a little bloodless.
At the close, Hutson as Rochester asks if, as an audience, we like him any better now; while the jury may be out on the man and his life, there is surely little doubt about this ebullient, nuanced and vigorous piece of theatre.
The Libertine at Citizens Theatre
Stephen Jeffreys--The Libertine
Dominic Hill set to direct revival of The Libertine at Citizens Theatre
Preview: The Libertine, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow from Saturday May 3, 2014, until Saturday May 24, 2014. More info: www.citz.co.uk
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