Casanova
October 24, 2007
Northern Stage Newcastle 23rd Oct to 27th and touring
When looking to write a play considering adapting an existing story must be a favoured option as you have the characters and plot outline already. But then to change the lead from a male to a female, as writer Carol Ann Duffy has done here, is no easy task. Luckily she manages to pull off the gender change to provide us with a worthwhile , yet different, night at the theatre.
This production by Told by an Idiot, Yorkshire Playhouse and the Lyric Hammersmith is a pantomime for adults, told in two fifty minute chunks of entertaining theatre. The cast of seven play a multitude of parts during the play and to keep up the pantomime feel , the male members play the countesses and the females roles such as Mozart. The opening sequence with Casanova in prison literally has no English dialogue spoken in the first ten minutes, but the Italian, German and whatever else that is thrown at us during this time sets the scene and does not stop the comedy element of the production .
Little actual notice is taken to the truth of the real Casanova, as we follow the female version on her travels from Venice to Britain, where she visits Glasgow and Newcastle ( I assume this scene is changed to wherever the play is being performed) before arriving in London. Her travels involve meetings with Voltaire and Mozart, who are immediately cast under her spell. Later when she awakes in a bullring the comedy is at its best as the bull she is about to slaughter falls in love with her.
To move the story along Director David Hunter uses not only asides to the audience from various members of the cast, but a narrative disembodied female voice which sounds to come from behind the audience. Some of the references are totally out of context for the period, including a quote from the Bette Davis classic Now Voyager, a low flying helicopter sound effect and eating curry in Newcastle. But these add to the comedy and keep the production moving along.
It is only when Casanova becomes old that the production seems to lose steam slightly.
Designer Naomi Wilkinson sets all the action on a bare horseshoe two tier set which works extremely well, regardless of the action being on the Grand Canal in Venice or a bullring.
The play is not a history lesson on Casanova and despite the alluring poster for the production, that have become so popular they are being stolen, everyone remains fully clothed throughout. This is a bawdy romp of a show that will bring a smile to anyone’s face.
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