Tristan Bates Theatre until 9th September. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
5*****
Lazarus Theatre Company have got the Midas touch when it comes to adapting classic plays. Following on from their freewheeling festival Taming of the Shrew, Edward II takes a huge leap to the dark side in this intense, bloody (and bloody brilliant) production.
Edward I is dead, and as Edward II takes the throne, he calls his lover Gaveston back from the exile imposed by the dead king. Showering Gaveston with titles and riches usually reserved for those of nobler blood, Edward antagonises his court and shuns his wife, and the plotting against him begins. Sexual prejudices and political shenanigans – a thoroughly modern play written over 400 years ago. Christopher Marlowe’s glorious text is adapted skilfully by director Ricky Dukes into a tight 90 minutes of unrelenting tension.
The show starts in the usual Lazarus way, with two cast members clowning around on stage, but they are soon replaced by men in ties pacing around and eyeballing each other, in a precursor to the labyrinthine plots and mistrust that follow. Masks hang on the walls, used to chilling effect in the final scenes, and a table and two chairs create the focus for the cast’s movement.
Lazarus’ usual use of music and ensemble movement is muted here. The cast don’t leave the stage, but instead of lounging around the edges, they stand stock still, staring blankly at the action, showing the constant surveillance and judgement of Edward and Gaveston’s relationship, and producing an increasingly intimidating and claustrophobic atmosphere.
Bradley Frith’s Gaveston breaks the initial silence with his crowing reading of Edward’s letter calling him back to England, setting up the character as a mercenary chancer, but the moments where Edward (Luke Ward-Wilkinson) and Gaveston hold each other are tender and played beautifully, with the love between the two men shining through. There are scenes where the rest of the cast plot against them as the two gaze silently at each other that are just background noise as the two actors are spellbinding in their intensity.
Ward-Wilkinson gives a barnstorming performance as Edward, petulant, camp, funny and lovelorn, wringing every possible emotion from the riveting scene where he gives up the crown, and a pitiful, self-pitying wreck in his final scenes. Lakesha Cammock is a fiery and full-blooded Isabella, and Jamie O’Neill is full of quiet menace as ambitious Young Mortimer. Alex Zur, Andrew Gallo, John Slade, Stephen Emery and David Clayton play the lords of the realm with wonderful energy – there isn’t a weak link in the cast.
The final scenes, with the cast, in those masks, stripped to their underwear, with plastic aprons and plastic sheeting being laid down in anticipation of the bloodbath to come may not please Marlowe purists, but they are horribly effective and satisfying, taking the play full circle to its opening scene, with dire consequences for the plotters.
There’s only a week left to see this fantastic show – grab a ticket and get down to Tristan Bates.