Reader Reviews
Believe What You Will (Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | This is the only one of the Gunpowder season to date (I've yet to see Sejanus)which deserves preservation. It's a really good play with wit and substance. William Houston is a star and is well contrasted by Peter ede Jersey's Antiochus. Well done indeed. - 193.118.206.221) | 11 Aug 05 |
| Well done Josie Rourke. Will Houston and Peter de Jersey are great sparring partners although I felt PdJ dropped into self pity a little too often in the second half of the play. Although perhaps that is a little unkind in the circumstances of his spiral from handcuffed prisoner to tortured soul at the hands of Titus Flaminius. Will Houston seems completely at home as Flaminius, all smiles and platitudes until crunch time, the vocal expression changes with the emphasis and you are left in no doubt as to who rules the action - well at least until the last Act! Roll on the rest of the GunPowder season. More "baddies " for WH to cut his teeth on. The WOS reviewer Pete Woods states that Will Houston was last seen at the RSC in the Heny VI trilogy - can I correct this to read Heny IV parts 1 & 2 and Henry V. Perhaps the I and the V were typed the wrong way around....! - 81.153.129.229) | 15 Jun 05 |
| The best of the current Gunpowder season so far at the Swan. Will Houston simply superb, oozing charm and menace in equal measure. Well directed. Definately recommended. - 62.252.0.10) | 06 Jun 05 |
| LORD Acton famously commented: “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” And in Josie O’Rourke’s RSC production of this rarely-performed and newly-revived 1631 Massinger play, never has the message been so powerful. There are scores of modern parallels and political warnings in the tale of Antiochus, a Middle Eastern ruler, returning to his country after 22 years presumed dead in battle. In the intervening years, Rome has become a superpower and will stop at nothing to protect her empire. When Roman Ambassador Titus Flaminius discovers Antiochus lives, he threatens invasion and sanctions, uses torture and sex in order to discredit the king and ensure Rome’s imperialism. William Houston makes Flaminius an uncompromising bold seductor; switching from icy glare to disconcerting charm in a blink, with a palpable gearshift during the interval as his goal becomes less about Rome, and more about his personal refusal to be beaten. Peter de Jersey’s Antiochus remains battle-scarred yet dignified in a brilliant and emotionally-exhausting performance, and his scenes with Houston’s arrogant Flaminius have echoes of Christ being persecuted by a Rome which is just as intimidated by the quiet power one man represents. With excellent support from a sterling company, notably Barry Stanton's larger-than-life Berecinthius, Michelle Butterly's Courtesan and the multi-roled excellent Tim Treloar,it’s another pacy, exciting and explosive offering in the Gunpowder season. More please. - 84.68.38.6) | 01 Jun 05 |
