Shakespeare in love at the Tower theatre, Stoke Newington March 19th - 29th

A farcical period rom-com based on the 1998 film staring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes: Following the success of his recent play ‘Two gentlemen of Verona’ a young William Shakespeare is suffering from a terrible attack of writers block (Romeo and Ethel is just not getting off the ground). This is not just bad news for him but also for cash strapped theatre owner Henslowe (Christpher Lloyd Jones) who is counting on Shakespeare to provide him and his motley crew of actors with another crowd pleaser to save him from the clutches of Brutal moneylender Fennyman (Thomas Whitcomb).

Fortunately for the bumbling bard, Shakespeare’s luck changes when he attends a high society party as the guest of fellow writer Kit Marlow (Navron R Anderson) and meets poetry loving theatre fangirl Lady Viola De Lessep (Kizzy Parvin).

Although she is due to be married off to money grabbing aristocrat lord Wessex (Stephen deaville), she is rather taken with silver tongued Shakespeare and so with the help of her nurse (Stephanie Irvine) she hatches a plot to disguise herself (rather unconvincingly it must be said!) as a boy, only men were allowed on stage in the 1600’s, and get a part in his forthcoming play in the hope of catching his eye.

As the sparks fly between Shakespeare and Viola the play takes shape and comes to life, but in world where life imitates art will the tale end in comedy or tragedy?

‘Shakespeare in love’ has a large cast which works well for an amatuer production as it gives more people a chance to shine, and there were several talented performers with smaller roles such as James Collins who played Mercutio, Stephanie Irvine as Viola's nurse and Victoria Flint as Queen Elizabeth to name a few. However my award for best supporting role would have to go to Navron R Anderson who was perfectly cast in the role of playwright Kit Marlow and played an excellent straight-man to Christopher Edge’s bumbling William Shakespeare.

In terms of costume period is always challenging and for the most part the costume was very good, especially the Queens Elizabeth dresses which were both outstanding, however note to the costume designers could you not have paid a little bit more attention to your leading man? While many of the side characters: Fennyman, Burbage and Lord Wessex for example were dressed to the Elizabethan 9’s, we had a Shakespeare who appeared to be dressed as Franken Furter from below the waist: in a pair of cut off grey shorts, 40 dernier black tights and patent slip-ons which frankly just looked a little odd, and dare I say it did slightly detract from his otherwise solid performance.

But lets not dwell on the negative, one thing I really loved about this production was the music and the choreography, usually a side note but in this case it really brought the production to life. Rachel Bern’s dance routines were simple but very effective and I especially liked the fact they manged to find traditional instruments like the bass recorder to add a layer of authenticity to Paddy Cuneen’s musical score.

Overall ‘Shakespere in Love’ is a thoroughly decent bit of am dram, if you happen to know anyone who is involved in this production then do get yourself down to the Tower theatre next week and show them your support!

https://www.towertheatre.org.uk/shakespeare/