Details
Venue: The Orange Tree
Dates: 7th December 2018 - 26th January 2019
Tickets: £25, Conc £19, under 30s £12.50 > www.atgtickets.com
SYNOPSIS
A house party on a sultry autumn evening. A marriage has been arranged between Cynthia and Mellefont.
All should be plain sailing, but the young couple must contend with the jealousies, vanities and vagaries of a host of brilliantly drawn comic characters. Above all, they must overcome the Machiavellian machinations of Maskwell – the eponymous Double Dealer.
In a world of artifice and guile, how are we to judge whose behaviour is beyond reproach?
This delightful restoration comedy, written by Congreve at the age of only 24, provides an irresistible foretaste of the kind of iconic characters which appear in his subsequent great comedies, The Way of the World and Love for Love. Selina Cadell recently directed the latter to critical acclaim for the RSC. She has also directed The Rivals (Arcola) and The Rake’s Progress (Wilton’s Music Hall). Her recent acting work includes Humble Boy at the Orange Tree, and Alan Bennett’s People and The Habit of Art (National Theatre).
Our Verdict
A festive show with its satirical wit and Congreve’s Restoration comedy of 1694 (his second play) has rarely been performed in recent decades so it’s good to see a fresh production, beautifully suited to the Orange Tree’s intimate space. Although it does seem an unusual choice for rather salacious subject-matter and its scant emphasis on true redemption for any of its characters.
The modern prologue (couched in comic verse) tells us from the first that “the plot is not the thing”, a timely reminder for Selina Cadell’s production delivered at breakneck speed with a plot so archly convoluted one quickly abandons any attempt to follow each development and instead it seems better to simply appreciate the mayhem ensuing onstage.
The way the play was written means it has to be staged in a deliberately self-aware fashion, playing to the audience and involving them shamelessly in the action of the play. This approach works well sometimes and I enjoyed the curtseys and bows that accompanied each scene. Whilst at other times it can become overly knowing but the use of Eliza Thompson’s beautiful music (echoing Purcell’s original composition) undoubtedly enhances proceedings.
Congreve was renowned for his witty dialogue and satirical lampooning of society’s foibles and whilst this play does get crazily boisterous and is a little overlong. Nonetheless, courtesy of a strong cast, there’s much to enjoy in a comedy of manners that lambasts ambitious pretension and lays bare (almost literally, on occasion) the frantic machinations of many a character, the worst of whom is the Machiavellian Maskwell.
The names of Restoration characters are never subtle, always revealing their true nature and Maskwell is a perfect case in point, a man of dizzying duplicity, energetically played by Edward MacLiam. The basic plot, such as it is, has the suave Maskwell masterminding several simultaneous plots whilst trying to gain access to his coveted Cynthia, a girl promised to erstwhile friend Mellefont, whom he has no compunction in flagrantly betraying. Whether one finds it all too rumbustious or enjoyably over-the-top may simply depend on personal taste but it certainly maximises every inch of theatrical space with unbridled flamboyance.
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