Anton Lesser and |
roilus and Cressida is one of Shakespeare's most
complex plays. It certainly probes beneath the layer of legend. But what
is it about? Well, sex and power for a start, and all the less admirable
aspects of human behaviour that arise in consequence.
In Howard Davies' production for the RSC at Stratford, this negative, despicable side
of man (the masculine generic usage is pertinent: women here walk strictly
along the sidelines of their menfolk's selfishness) is given a profoundly
heavy emphasis; the action plucked from the Trojan War background and placed
in a nineteenth century Crimean context of field telephones, cameras and
the more immediate realities of smokedust, gore and bandage.
A sense of waste and decay is powerfully suggested visually
by Ralph Koltai's ravaged-mansion set, and indeed aurally in llona Sekecz's
chiming, dramatic piano score. But such a single-minded concept is difficult
lo sustain, and the emergence of the warrior Achilles not from his tent
but down a stately staircase, as if he and Patroclus have whiled away the
time at billiards, draws the sling from Shakespeare's battlefield.
But then that is inevitable with such punctured heroes
as Peter Jeffrey's wily, committee-room Ulysses and David Burke's mundane,
businesslike Hector. The downbeat quality is reinforced by the portrayal
of Paris as a strutting buffoon and in a distinctly unglamorous Diomedes.
Hard to imagine the Cressida of "fine, lull, perfect grief" giving
him a second glance.
Such relentless rottenness is of course ripe for the
cynical Thersites, and here Alun Armstrong seizes his opportunity splendidly,
turning the knife with gleeful anarchy.
Juliet Stevenson intelligently underlines the helpless,
pawn-like nature of Cressida's predicament, giving her what seems a congenital
air of uncertainty, while Anton Lesser is, more conventionally, a youthful,
stouthearted Troilus. In all, this is one of the most thoughtful productions
of the play in recent years, perhaps a shade too thoughtful.
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