Reviews 2004
Reviews 2004
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by William Shakespeare, directed by Antoni Cimolino
Stratford Festival, Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford
August 20-September 24, 2004
"Women, Not Men, Make History Gripping"
Stratford hasn’t seen a production of Shakespeare history play “King John” since 1993. Then the late and much-missed Nicholas Pennell played the John and Stephen Ouimette the Bastard under the direction of Robin Phillips. Now Ouimette plays John and Jonathan Goad the Bastard under the direction of Stratford Executive Manager Antoni Cimolino. Needless to say, Cimolino directing only his fifth production at Stratford is no Robin Phillips. And as for the great Nicholas Pennell, no actor has since appeared at Stratford who matches his range, clarity in speaking verse and degree of subtlety in acting especially playing inwardly tortured characters. Unlike Phillips who created a production that was emotionally gripping from beginning to end, Cimolino seems to have thought only half way through the play allowing the rest to slip into tedium.
King John is best known as the man who was king during the time of Robin Hood while Richard Lionheart was away at the Crusades and as the king who in 1215 signed the Magna Carta. Neither Robin Hood nor the Magna Carta feature in Shakespeare’s play. Shakespeare’s interest in King John (1167-1216) is the same as his later interest in Henry IV--as a king who reigns by might, not right, and is conscious of his tenuous position from the very start. In Act 1, Scene 1 when John asserts his right to rule to the French Ambassador, John’s Mother Eleanor tells him, “[It is] Your strong possession much more than your right, Or else it must go wrong with you and me; So much my conscience whispers in your ear ….” From that point until the end the drama of the play is John’s attempt to maintain “strong possession” even as he senses oncoming doom due to the illegitimacy of his rule. Phillips knew this and Pennell turned the role into a masterful study of an insecure ruler being slowly consumed from within by a guilty conscience. Cimolino seems to be unaware of this aspect of the play and shows John stricken with conscience only near the very end. As a result Ouimette’s John is wooden and undercharacterized and becomes one of the least interesting characters of the play.
Parallel to John is Philip Faulconbridge, the bastard son of Lady Faulconbridge and Richard Lionheart. Just as illegitimate ruler John descends from “borrowed majesty” to evil and disgrace, illegitimate son Philip ascends from rank cynicism about all institutions to idealism and nobility of purpose. This change of character in king and bastard is what drives the play and should hold our interest to the end. Unfortunately, Cimolino hasn’t seen this which makes his production’s last hour so flat.
As the Bastard, Jonathan Goad does change by the end of the play but portrays his character as merely flippant, not incisively cynical, and does not mark the stages in his change of mentality. Cimolino is content to make him merely the “comic relief” without seeing his greater import. Goad, who speaks verse so rapidly it might as well be prose, continually fails to emphasis the important themes in his speeches. In the worst instance he throws away the key speech on “commodity” which should have resonance not just in the play but in our own time where money and politics are so intertwined.
Instead of focussing on the parallel of John and the Bastard, Cimolino frames the play as a story about mothers and sons. The play begins with spotlights on the three central mother-son pairs. There is Eleanor of Aquitaine whose youngest son is King John. As subtly played by Martha Henry she is the scheming power behind the throne, so strong she makes her son look weak by comparison. Then there is Constance, wife of one of John’s elder brothers and mother of the young Arthur, the rightful heir to the throne. Diane D’Aquila’s magnificently fierce performance, moving from barely suppressed rage to near madness is the most powerful in the production. Grade 6 student Aiden Shipley is moving as the innocent Arthur especially in the wrenching scene with his would-be executioner Hubert. The third pair is Lally Cadeau, who makes the most of her small role as Lady Faulconbridge, mother to Philip the Bastard and Robert, played as a comic geek by Stephen Gartner.
The fourth strong female role is that of Lady Blanche, who is married off to Lewis, the Dauphin of France, to broker a temporary peace between the two countries and to destroy Arthur’s claim to the throne. Keira Loughran is memorable, demurely falling in love with her arranged bridegroom, then outraged when it’s clear that politics not love are foremost in his mind. Dion Johnstone plays Lewis as a smooth talker, ready to say whatever the occasion demands.
While it is good to note the three mother-son relationships, the problem with emphasizing them is that all the women disappear from the action before Act 4 where Cimolino places the interval. Since he has not thought through the John-Bastard parallel, the action rapidly falls off in interest.
What helps save the last two acts is the powerful performance of Tom McCamus as Hubert, who like Buckingham in “Richard III”, is loyal to a tyrant only to be spurned later. McCamus’s intensity and ability to portray inner conflict make the scene when Hubert tries to blind the young Arthur highpoint of the second half of the play. Other fine performances come from Bernard Hopkins as an imperious Machiavellian Cardinal Pandulph, Peter Donaldson as an unusually formidable King of France, Ron Kennell as a foppish Duke of Austria and Ali Alnoor Kara as the young Henry III overwhelmed by events.
Santo Loquasto’s steel and girder set places the action in the late Victorian period and conjures up the horrors of war in the early machine age. His handsomely severe costumes make the differences of the French and English quite clear as well and the distinctions of rank and class. As befits a dark play set in this period Robert Thomson’s lighting conjures up the soot and murk of cities, prisons and battlefields and helps create a sense of doom that envelops all the characters.
Anyone who saw Phillips’ 1993 production should feel no great need to see Cimolino’s. Nevertheless, “King John” comes around very seldom at Stratford. This is only its fourth production here. Those who fear they may never see the play again will not want to miss this chance. And fans of Martha Henry, Diane D’Aquila and Tom McCamus will certainly not be disappointed.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Stephen Ouimette and Peter Donaldson. ©2004..
2004-08-21
King John