‘The Rover’ The Old Red Lion – Review
Reading Restoration comedy can be fun. It can also be a bit not fun. Think Centlivre and Pix. There, I said it. So I never got around to Aphra Behn, deciding instead to wait for a performance. You can wait a while for these damn buses! Anyway, The Old Red Lion Theatre has teamed up with Flywheel Theatre to bash out six plays in six weeks, rep style. The Rover is the first. Frankly, this is an excellent production; ebullient, exuberant, entertaining, grabbing theatre by the balls, pumping new blood, vigor and accessibility into the 1600’s. Dare I say, a five star show?
The story? One of those ‘lets dress up and pretend to be someone else and find out if he/she/they love us or just want to f**k us’ concoctions. Think Marivaux. Any Marivaux.
The actors? Well, you’ll need Sherlockian skills to find any details. The light from these guys – and there’s lots! – they hide under a bloody great bushel! Which is a shame as they deserve ready acknowledgement. I’ve long bemoaned the paucity of information that this theatre provides on it’s players and theatre makers and once again the effort (magnificent) by the performers is in no way reciprocated by the Theatre. Why? You’ll have to rummage down the back of one of their old sofas to find that Joe Stanley (the naughty Rover), Sadie Pepperrell (super eloquent and not a nun), Charlie Woodward (oh so wronged in lust), Rachel Bardwell (a bit of a tease) and Gabriel Lumsden (the teasee) were in any way connected. There were others – also excellent (including direction) – but I don’t have a Dr Watson. And I’m lazy.
Should you see this show? Well, we all had a laugh. It’s one of the best things I’ve seen for a while. Flywheel start rehearsals today for Romeo and Juliet. It’s been done to death. I might even go. Or wait for the sequel. It’s bit of a soap – ‘The Rover’s Return’.
by Chris Parkinson