IT’S not hard to see why this early Shakespeare comedy (perhaps his first play) is so rarely staged, with its inconsistent plot, illdrawn characters and bizarre ending, so TFT must be applauded for having the courage to include it in this year’s festival.
The play, in which we see favourite Shakespeare themes of friendship and infidelity being tried out for the first time, centres on the conflict between two close friends, the fickle Proteus (Patrick Pringle with cutglass accent – the play is set in the 1920s) and the limp Valentine (Tom Piercy) and their love for, respectively, Heidi Loveridge’s faithful Julia and Lou Mannell’s breathless vamp Silvia.
Along the way we meet Valentine’s servant Speed, a thoroughly likeable and easy-going performance from Russell Churcher, and Proteus’ servant Launce, a stand-up comic’s role, confidently taken by director Kevin Fraser with Crab the dog, the only part The Bard wrote for an animal.
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