Sunday 7 September 2014

Stratford Festival 2014 # 7: A King Like No Other

Shakespeare's history plays have never been as popular in Canada as the well-known comedies and tragedies.  Partly this is because the history underlying them is not well known to Canadians today.  But Stratford has done them all, and King John is no exception.  This marks the fifth time the Festival has staged the play, the first being in 1960.


If people today remember one fact about John, it is generally the way he was bullied by his barons into signing the Magna Carta, a document which is held to be at the root of some of our most cherished legal rights.  Curiously, this incident doesn't even appear in the play -- perhaps because those rights had not evolved in Shakespeare's day nearly as far as they now have come, and therefore the Magna Carta simply did not seem as significant a forerunner as it now does.

King John was not a good man,
He had his little ways,
And sometimes no one spoke to him
For days and days and days.

In some ways, that famous little verse by A. A. Milne seems to sum up the character of the King as he appears in Shakespeare's text.  He's depicted as a careless, slipshod sort of monarch, lacking in sound judgement and given to impulsive action without careful forethought.  This is not, perhaps, entirely unreasonable although the historic John had considerably more to him than this view suggests!

What Shakespeare's text has done is to open up some ingenious and intriguing interpretive possibilities in the minds of director Tim Carroll and his cast.  Most unusually for Stratford, this King John is a kind of darkly comical take on the way an Elizabethan audience might have experienced the play.  The ceiling of the Tom Patterson Theatre is crowded with chandeliers with burning candles, such as would have been used to light the hall for an indoor performance in Shakespeare's day.  The costumes (designed by Carolyn Smith) are Elizabethan, rather than Gothic, as audiences in Shakespeare's time always saw performances in what was (for them) "modern" dress.  The props and set dressings are a hodge-podge of everything between the 1200s and the 1500s, because research into company records has shown that Shakespeare's company had no compunction about mixing periods in this way.

Director Tim Carroll refers to this in his programme note as a "game" played with historical evidence.  Certainly there is no indication that this is "the way it was done" but it does open up interesting perspectives for the audience.

As does the casting of Tom McCamus in the title role.  McCamus is an actor very much at home with the ironic, the sarcastic, the "nudge, wink" of the aside comments and facial expressions, directed to the audience, that alter their perception of what they are seeing.  Taking this style into the role of King John certainly works much better than would be the case in many other Shakespeare histories.  But it's still a bit startling for the audience.  The history plays, when they are staged, tend to be done with great seriousness -- after all, history is a serious business, is it not?

(The author, also a historian, is tweaking the nose of his own profession here!)

King John, as played by McCamus, is perfectly summarized by one key moment.  When Cardinal Pandulph, the Pope's legate (Brian Tree) appears to pronounce the Pope's excommunication on the King, John turns around from the opposite end of the stage and gives him an airy wave of welcome, twiddling his fingers in the air as he does so!  Of course the audience laughs at his insouciance -- how could we not?

In this role the comical touch works especially well because John's true opponent in the play, his brother Geoffrey's widow Constance, is all tragedy,  The script permits her no other alternative.  And she is a perpetual, powerful presence in the drama -- a continual reminder that John may be King by right of force but that her young son, Arthur, is the King by divine right of succession.  Her speeches are heavy-duty, laden with significance.  This is a woman of great force of character, embarked on a crusade to set things right, and the role obviously demands an actor capable of great power and weight in presenting this woman.  Again, ideal casting: among all the current company, Seana McKenna best fits that description (for my money, anyway) and her performance in this role is the perfect counterweight to the lighter presentation of the King.

The third key character in the story is Philip, the Bastard.  Originally appearing as the son of Sir Robert Faulconbridge, he is quickly identified by Lady Faulconbridge as the bastard son of Richard the Lion-Heart (oldest brother of John).  King John takes Philip into his service and Philip becomes the most loyal of John's supporters throughout the play -- probably all too aware that without John's support he will become nothing and nobody.  Another large role, requiring many appearances and many shifts of tone, and again very aptly and rewardingly cast with Graham Abbey.

As a typical Shakespearean historical play, perhaps more pageant-like and less of a character study than some, this show of course requires the casting of numerous minor characters.  It should go without saying (but I'm going to say it anyway) that the minor roles were all cast from strength, as is typical of this Festival.

To keep these history plays from turning into fossilized dinosaurs, it's essential that the director maintain a high level of energy throughout.  This, combined with the unexpected elements of humour already mentioned, Tim Carroll absolutely delivered.  This King John is certainly a rewarding experience!

Oh, PS:  Thank goodness I finally got caught up on Stratford, because in 2 more days I begin my yearly binge at the Shaw Festival with 4 more plays to see this week!  (massive sigh of relief!)

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