The Recruiting Officer by George Farquahar, dir Josie Rourke, Rachel Stirling, Mark Gatiss, Nicolas Burns, Tobias Menzies, Donmar Warehouse
Delightful. Like slipping into a warm bath: everything is pitch perfect. Novel, yet poignant take on Over the Hills and Faraway - manipulated by John Gay in The Beggar’s Opera, which is the same vintage. Britches part; mistaken intentions; thwarted love and intentions as Kite, the recruiting sergeant on behalf of Captain Plume dragoons, cajoles and hood-winks innocents for the army. The womanising Captain Plume is in love with Silvia yet considers her above him. Melinda her cousin, ‘has airs,’ and is in love with Mr Worthy, Plume’s friend. Enter the post-restoration fop, Captain Brazen, who is connected and known to everyone, according to him - even the Conundrums of Shropshire – who seeks Melinda’s hand and you have a heady brew of fun, romp, wit and music that fizzles with energy……Yet Josie Rourke’s poignant twist as the soldiers do indeed go over the hills and far away, that as an after-image, remains long after the play has finished…..And for anyone familiar with Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker, The Recruiting Officer offers a poignant reminder of those real castaways in 1789, who staged this play on the shoreline of what is now Sydney….A case of art mirroring life, mirroring art, mirroring life made all the richer for it…..
No comments:
Post a Comment