When my little sister Daisy asked whether I would write a
review of this production I was a bit apprehensive. Anyone who knows me will
know that putting TV or film onto the stage just isn’t my thing. I’ve been criticized
for being too harsh in the past about stage productions based on screen.
Basically I love theatre, there are thousands of brilliant plays which don’t
get performed enough. With all those on offer, I don’t understand why you would
decide to perform something that anyone can rent on DVD, or just watch on
YouTube. Particularly amateur theatre groups. The Miller Centre performed a
great Swimming with Sharks last year but it’s hard to concentrate when you know
you have a DVD of Kevin Spacey performing it at home. I was just sitting there
thinking, “Really? Do you think you have something to add to this that Kevin
Spacey missed? No? Then …why?”
So that was my initial reaction when Daisy told me she would
be appearing in Blackadder on stage with the Chichester Players. But I figured,
I’ve only ever seen the Chichester players once before and it was a great
production of The Crucible which I enjoyed immensely. And, I might be a tiny
weeny bit biased, but Daisy is brilliant on stage. She is, she’s brilliant. OK
none of our family are exactly Dame Judi but Daisy has a concentration of her
character and a uninhibited confidence on stage that makes her an asset to any production
she gets involved with.
Bearing this in mind I headed down to Chichester to see Blackadder.
And realised I had forgotten something else about this kind of ‘fan fiction’
production. The infectious joy of it. When you watch people performing
something they love, that energy sparks off stage and makes you happy. And you
can forgive little things like a couple of the actors being a bit quiet (not so
bad for me as I was near the front but I felt a bit sorry for those at the back
at points) and missed lines, and even bigger things like the use of a prompt and
clunky scene changes.
OK I can’t quite ever forgive clunky scene changes. During
the last hospital episode, the two hospital beds were loudly dragged out and
off again about every 2 minutes, the change lasting longer than some of the
scenes. By the end, this was making me giggle more than some of the play. I
strongly feel that the director should have had some weary characters (perhaps
Baldrick?) bringing the beds on and off again with a weary ‘oh we’ve got to
bring these beds on again’ look at the audience, it would have brought the
house down. Elsewhere there was some clever use of curtained off areas of the
stage so different scenes could emerge and disappear, which worked very well in
places, like in the first episode, Beer, where Blackadder had two parties going on in
different rooms of his house. At other points, lighting different areas of the
stage would have been more effective and less clunky. Better still, the play
could have used some editing to be more like a play with longer scenes and less
like a screen play where, of course, you can cut to another scene every few
lines as and when you feel like it.
Even better than that would have been a theatrical framing
device where Blackadder and Baldrick enter at the start of the play and
introduce it, explaining that they are going to re-enact some of their
adventures for you, maybe some jokes about Baldrick always wanting to be an
actor, and a call to turn off mobile phones because they haven’t been invented
yet etc. That would have set the scene, given it a theatrical setting and
brought the whole production together as a play.
Anyway. While the staging was a little clunky the costumes
were marvellous, taking us through the different historical periods without the
need for complicated scenery. Queenie, played by a polished and very endearing Carrie Allen wore a large Queen Elizabeth
dress, making her being chucked in a cupboard at least 30% funnier.
They wouldn’t have been able to pull this off without some
excellent lead roles who were cast so well you couldn’t help but wonder if the
company were performing this play because a lot of them looked a bit like characters
in Blackadder. Tom Worthen did very well as Blackadder, he reminded me a lot of
Rowan Atkinson and even had the mannerisms right. He had a tendency to mumble some
of the longer lines but on the whole it was an expert performance. James Allen
was also a great Baldrick, he had his comic timing spot on.
Although he was a
little quiet, I also loved Steve Jupp’s delightfully dotty Prince/Lieutenant George. Especially his kind of vacant look when he wasn't talking and didn't really know what was going on. At the end of Act 2 my mum, who doesn’t remember Blackadder very well, said to
me ‘Prince George just looks ridiculous’ I said ‘yes, he’s meant to be like
that.’
Roddy McKerrell turned a brilliant shade of magenta as the
angry Captain Darling which was most entertaining. David Brown had a great line in
Stephen Fry-esque acting with a fabulous moustache which I was sorry to see
that he shaved off immediately after the last performance! Young boys Nick
Holland and Wilf Bond as Pitt the Younger and Pitt the Even Younger did
magnificently on their lines and volume. The poker faces of Lord and Lady
Whiteadder in Beer were great too. I
really can’t go through and mention all the actors but special honourable
mention to director Mark Clark, forced to take on several of the smaller
comical characters as one of the actors had hurt his back. I thought he was
hilarious.
On the whole while this wasn’t the most polished production
I’d ever seen it was fast paced and entertaining with some great little
touches, like Baldrick on a spit with an apple in his mouth. The fun the actors
had creating it was infectious and we had a very enjoyable evening. And my sister was brilliant, naturally.
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While I was writing this entry I got an email from the National Theatre reminding me that London Road is coming back! If you missed this amaaaaazing production first time round have a word with yourself and go and see it this time. Book it, book it now.
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NEWSFLASH
While I was writing this entry I got an email from the National Theatre reminding me that London Road is coming back! If you missed this amaaaaazing production first time round have a word with yourself and go and see it this time. Book it, book it now.
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In case you would like to see them, here are the episodes of Blackadder which the Chichester players put on stage:
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