Two Gentlemen of Verona
2014: Robin Lough

This is the Royal Shakespeare production of 2014 — before the RSC went almost completely off the rails (to my way of thinking) in its absurdist pursuit of not only modernity but a kind of nihilistic delight in literary vandalism. Hence it’s a pretty solid modern-dress version of the play, fairly complete, and well acted throughout. There are a few design decisions that didn’t make sense to me: having Valentine pull an automatic pistol on Proteus at the end seemed oddly artificial (even though the overall context is modern); the music, where it occurred, was rather intrusive and occasionally (again, to my own taste) just bad. The setting of the opening bits at a contemporary Italian café with clichéd Italian tourism music is a bit much, but it is over before too long.

The play has two main but not wholly reconciled creative thrusts — cleverness and arch wordplay on the one hand, and emotional tension on the other. The two leading men and their servants (Valentine and Proteus, Launce and Speed) carry the burden of the former. Much of it is very artificial indeed, and if that’s your cup of tea (I rather enjoy it, to a point) you will probably find that it’s well played here. I think it may not be quite as crisp as what one finds in the 1983 BBC Shakespeare version by Taylor, but it’s in the same ballpark — well done and up to a fairly high standard. The emotional play (almost right down to the very end) is carried by the women (Julia and Silvia). The women playing Julia and Silvia are both quite good, but they are not given the scope to exhibit as much of their (completely reasonable) distress as were their corresponding members of the 1983 cast. Some of that has to do with camera work and editing decisions. In particular, we are shown Julia in the 1983 Taylor production registering serial waves of astonishment and grief as she sees her Proteus wooing a resistant Silvia; here she gets less screen time for the reaction shots (which might well have been viewable in the theater), and accordingly we don’t get that rich harvest of dramatic angst. Where we see her, to be sure, she carries herself with gravitas and dignity. Sarah MacRae’s Silvia is imposing and impressive — energetic (more so than Joanne Pearce’s in the BBC version), with a welcome and appealing feistiness. She’s not just beautiful — she’s clearly tough. We get much more of a sense of her actual agency along the way, and it makes an appealing change.

The supporting roles are well-handled, and of course the bit with a dog is once again a major part of the show. The DVD even has a special feature dealing with the dog (Mossup) playing Crab.

This is a freshman effort on Shakespeare’s part — some believe it to have been his first produced play — and despite some tooth-grittingly problematic moments, there are some good parts to it. Each of the two productions I have seen of it have emphasized different aspects of the play, and both are definitely worth watching.

As a warning to parents and teachers, there are some overtly sexualized bits of gesticulation that some may want to avoid.

Buy Two Gentlemen of Verona from Amazon.