Friday March 29, 2024
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
Review

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

By Whitney Fitzsimmons
March 31 2014

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Sport For Jove, Seymour Centre, at the York Theatre March 27th - April 12th: Photography by Seiya Teguchi: featuring Francesca Savige & Edmund Lembke-Hogan

BY WHITNEY FITZSIMMONS

All's Well That Ends Well is Sport For Jove's first offering in its repertory season at the Seymour Centre. In the program notes director Damien Ryan admits there were inherent difficulties in staging this particular offering from the Bard and I agree with him. It is also apparent from Sport For Jove's rendition of All's Well That Ends Well that creative solutions were not the winners on many accounts. That said there are some great moments in this production. But do the positives outweigh the negatives? On balance I would say they are "neck and neck".

The story has all the classic Shakespearean twists, turns and of course the ol' switcheroo, that ultimately boxes the protagonist Bertram (Edmund Lembke-Hogan) into corner and forces him to realise the error of his ways. But aside from the classic hallmarks of a Shakespearean plot, All's Well That End's Well is different in quality. It's very dark with psycho-sexual undertones, peppered with hugely comedic moments. So it's understandable why this play was on Damien Ryan's hit-list. 

Sport For Jove have a great pedigree. This is one of a smidgeon of independent companies on Sydney's theatre scene and they consistently turn in solid work. That is why this offering is so confusing. On one hand it has a great cast all of whom obviously know their craft and except for some first night nerves gave good performances.  Damien Ryan has directed stunning Shakespeare for SFJ - remember his 90 minute Hamlet in 2012 starring Lindsay Farris? So why then a version of All's Well That Ends Well that runs at three hours 10 minutes with a short (15 minute) interval? Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play and the SFJ version was fabulous. This production seriously needed a good edit. There were many funny moments that were well executed but didn't move the plot along and therefore could be cut down. Not telling your audience how long a production runs is a mistake, particularly when it begins quite early in the evening - in this case 7:30pm.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

The pace of this production is uneven, there are times when it seems to drag and others when the action is quite captivating. As mentioned there are some great moments in this show and George Banders as Parolles is responsible for many of them. But Robert Alexander as the King of France is also interesting as he morphs from a frail old man to a sprightly silver fox. Eloise Winestock (who interestingly did a great job as Ophelia in Hamlet back in 2012) is also fabulous as Diana of Florence - Helena's (Francesca Savige) partner in crime who helps her double-cross Bertram. It must also be mentioned that there is a surprising amount of (male) nudity in this story, which could run the risk of being cheap, but under Ryan's direction it manages to maintain a modicum of dignity.

The key issue (problem) with this production is the onerous set design. In the centre of the stage is an imposing steel four-poster bed which throughout the show turns into a myriad of different environments. On the face of it, it seems like a clever idea, however in a theatre that is mostly in the round it's a problem. For most of the first half steel bars masked my view of the actors' faces. There were times that I needed to crane my neck to see what was going on. If I had paid for this privilege I would have definitely asked for my money back. Fortunately I was able to move to the centre sector in the second half which made for easier viewing. But still, the set seemed cumbersome and unnecessarily so. There are ways around the inherent staging problems that this play throws up but it seemed that set designer Antoinette Barboutis was too bamboozled by the challenge to really find them.  

All's Well That Ends Well? Just stay away from the side aisle seats and you'll be fine.

 

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