Theatre
All for Love (Almeida) Black Snow (Cottesloe)
Dryden dusted off
Christopher Edwards
However much we must thank Ian McDiarmid, Jonathan Kent and their com- pany for the unusual experience of a starry professional revival of Dryden's play about Antony and Cleopatra, there is no mistak- ing that All for Love is a turkey of a play. Upon first reading the programme note I thought the studied omission of any refer- ence to the fact that Dryden modelled his play upon Shakespeare's was rather odd. After seeing the production I realised that this was merely an implicit critical appraisal of Dryden's effort.
Where Shakespeare has psychological insight, moral complexity, irony and the felt constraints of a public world Dryden just makes do with personal relations. His play is pure Restoration soap opera. Cleopatra is the flame-haired Egyptian temptress whom the boss, Antony, meets on an over- seas business trip down the Nile. Back home there is Octavia, the coldly forgiving wife, and a couple of kids to think about. Will Cleo stop him clinching the imperial deal? Of course all this is presented in ele- gant and well pointed verse, but the under- lying drama, such as it is, is pretty turgid.
`Periwigged declamation' . . . 'like a gong' . . . critical opinion of Dryden's verse has varied over the ages. Eliot sounded a fair note of appreciation. He said that it is the pure magnificence of diction, of poetic diction, that keeps Dryden's plays alive, before adding crisply that Dryden created no character: `When his situation is more trivial Dryden can practise his art of mak- ing the small great'. So, not much chance with the greatest love story of them all. The audience laughed at the all too recognis- able' squabbling within the eternal triangle of husband, wife and mistress. What should be great is rendered domestic.
None of this is meant to distract from the pleasures of watching Diana Rigg exercis- ing all her considerable talent and charms on the part of Cleopatra. Not periwigged, but short-cropped and wearing a low-cut Fortuny number, she tries to make the part as mischievous and sensual as she can. The idea did cross my mind that if the style of acting had been more austere, more
restrained, more Corneillean, then maybe the drama would have had more dignity. But this idea did not last long. Dryden's writing is too hollow for anything tragic or seriously affecting. James Laurenson's Antony is a manly, middle-aged fool for love, Angela Down's Octavia a forbidding Roman dame. Clever lighting ensures that the right side of the stage is lit in cold hard Roman light while the Egyptian side is warm and colourful. The set is lovely — two winding classical staircases leading down to a central hall. I am glad to have seen All for Love, which is rightly regarded as Dryden's best play. But the experience does seem to confirm that he is well beyond reclaim.
The main appeal of Keith Dewhurst's hilarious adaptation of Bulgakov's novel is its account of the demonic jealousies and colossal vanities that prevail in the theatre. The original novel may have been a score- settling account of the author's frustrated attempts to have his play put on by the Moscow Art Theatre in the Thirties, but the insights he gives are universal. This excellent company makes the most of every comic opportunity.
Bulgakov's main target of scorn was the great Russian director Stanislavslcy, the man behind the 'Method'. The main scene in Black Snow has the Stanislavsky figure Ivan Vassilevich presiding over a rehearsal. Robin Bailey supplies a brilliant portrait of despotism and hauteur. A barely audible moan is all he needs utterly to deflate some thespian's idea. In one unforgettable moment he suggests that a lover trying to give flowers to his girl ought to play the scene riding round her on a bike. The con- tortions of passion on the face of the young man as he wobbles about are hysterically funny. No doubt this burlesque is grossly unfair to the great man. But there are suffi- cient touches of satire, humour and sheer unbridled bitchery in this adaptation to make Bill Gaskill's production very enter- taining.
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