'Striking piece' King John comes to Swan Theatre - review
In this genderfluid season at the Royal Shakespeare Company, it goes without saying that King John is played by a woman.
Rosie Sheehy, in her first season with the RSC, does a fine job in Shakespeare's rarely performed tragedy, as a ruthless monarch living an unprincipled life and dying a particularly horrible death, bloody vomit and all.
But the most striking piece of cross-gender casting is Katherine Pearce as Cardinal Pandulph, not the usual Vatican functionary but a brilliant North Country lass in a purple frock. Unforgettable.
Eleanor Rhode directs a show rich in novelty, in early 1960s costume with rock music, Mary Quant dresses and Dame Edna spectacles. When the British Army arrives in France, the soldiers celebrate by dancing the Twist.
There's a terrific moment in the wedding-breakfast scene when the helium balloons spelling JUST MARRIED are punctured in a fight, leaving the grim message 'JUST DIE'.
When a play is as rarely seen as this, while you might enjoy the gimmicks, you may come out , as I did, wanting to see a more traditional production. Hold the Twist, bring on the men in tights.
And here's the rub. During this season, the RSC has ticked every politically-correct box it is possible to tick. It has delivered casting that is both colour-blind and gender-neutral.
It has created gay storylines, introduced a disabled actor in a wheelchair and even presented an entire scene in signing for the deaf.
And for all these well-meant attempts to be hip, happening, inclusive, outreachy and woke, the RSC was yesterday condemned by local schoolkids in Stratford and threatened with a boycott for accepting sponsorship from the oil company BP.
You cannot win. Somebody should write a play about it.
King John is at Stratford until March 21 next year.
