RARELY STAGED HENRY VI TRIUMPH FOR SSC
Tackling Shakespeare’s Henry VI with its three parts and more than 70 characters most of whom are male is a huge project for any drama company whether it be professional or amateur.
That Southend Shakespeare Company led by their most senior director, Michael Clements, and backed by a talented team both on stage and behind the scenes, make it as great a success as it is at the Palace Theatre’s Dixon Studio is a triumph indeed and shows just how the SSC has grown in strength and commitment in recent years.
For a start Michael had to cut the verbose script of the Bard’s two earliest plays and rid it of much of the excess and wandering verbosity in it and also trim it to fit the span of two plays, which are entitled The Descent into Chaos and The Triumph of Evil., which are being presented in repertory at the Dixon until Saturday ,November 28.
The first opens in France after the death of the heroic Henry V with his son Henry VI, a muxh quieter studious man taking the throne in a troubled country with its wars with France.
Subsequently the weaknesses of the new king are exposed with battles for power among his nobles and their subsequent treachery leading to the country spiralling down into chaos with a final rebellion by the people.
This is a play about weakness in the face of a search for ultimate power with the King not aided by his decision to marry Margaret, a woman with a mind of her own who quickly learns to despise Henry for his weaknesses.
The play consists of the machinations and fights between the English nobles like York, Gloucester and Suffolk with the very powerful Warwick always in the background.
The SSC is very strong in older, experienced actors and Roy Foster, Keith Chanter, Stephen Jones and Dave Lobley deliver their usual fine performances, while James Carter plays the weak king, a nice contrast for him, and he delivers an outstanding performance throughout the two plays.
But it is with the younger members that the star performances are a surprise..
Young Elena Clements after some great little cameo performances in recent productions, makes her Joan of Arc a very special character, while among the other female characters Tracey-Anne Bourne makes Margaret a strong woman who is willing to fight for her husband but obviously loves Peter Mack’s treacherous Suffolk raised to the heights of power by Henry only to betray him.
There are a few fine set piece speeches, a touch of witchcraft, precursor to the witches in Macbeth, and the most astonishing revolt of the peasants led by Dave Lobley’s Cade, which provides a fantastic climax to the first part.
The second half Triumph of Evil is aptly named with the Civil War of the Roses resulting in even more bloodshed and the challengers for the throne murdering the younger members of families with claims to the throne to eliminate them from possibilities of succession.
Rarely can there have been such a demand for stage blood capsules than this play requires.
Tracey- Anne shows even more of her acting skills, York and his family are disgraced and Andrew Sugden as Edward son of York eventually takes the throne while Henry is incarcerated in the Tower.
But it is the appearance of another superb young performer, George Kemp, as a young hunchbacked, deformed Richard of York, who was the future infamous Richard III, who steals the whole show with a truly magnetic performance with his final killing of Henry in the Tower and some superbly spoken and performed speeches.
Keith Chanter’s death as Warwick is also a fine moment in a play which is one continuous mass of murders, feuds and treachery and lacks even one touch of humour.
There are echoes of the great things to come in the writings of Shakespeare and SSC make the two parts of Henry VI memorable in many ways and enabled me to see one of the few Shakespeare’s I had never seen. Well done!
JOHN GILES.
