Reader Reviews
Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | A weak and dumbed down production. Much of Shakespeare's language replaced with bland translations. The word is important. so please leave in words like 'orgulous' and 'consanguinity'. Thersites shines (but it's a very good role). Funny turn from Ajax. A good Hector. Troilus weak. Cressida was from another play. Achilles was a ludicrous skinny chap with a Welsh accent. He wore make-up designed to look like he was wearing joke spectacles. Elsewhere actors look rather uncomfortable. That said even a bad production is worth seeing. PS Very good programme notes. - Kit Marlowe | 22 Sep 09 |
| Shockingly bad - so relieved to be on the end of a row. Able to escape after 5 minutes in a suitable hiatus. If I could give it a minus score, I would. - Aine | 21 Sep 09 |
| I was not familiar with Troilus & Cressida so a test of any production is whether it is comprehensible. By and large Matthew Dunster succeeds. It is not his fault that the warring Greeks and Trojans seem to spend most of the time socialising with each other and the ending is frustratingly inconclusive. Dunster's version of Cressida is more romantic than Shakespeare intended, although more believable, and there are some very variable performances. Ania Sowiski doubles as a mildly bonkers Cassandra and a strikingly horny Helen, but Ben Bishop is a leaden, oafish Paris. Christopher Colquhun is a charismatic Hector but Paul Stocker is a bit of a wimp as Troilus. Chinna Wodu's Mr. T impression as Ajax is game for a laugh as is, appropriately, Matthew Kelly, gamely recreating his camp telly persona as Pandarus. Best of all is the adorably cute Laura Pyper as a spirited and sensual Cressida. She did not appear to have given herself willingly to Diomedes, which might be a director's invention but was much more plausible for a character so obviously devoted to Troilus. Despite some faults and directorial conceits this was an exciting production and part of a very good Globe season. - David Baxter | 06 Sep 09 |
| Another patronising production of Shakespeare in London, where we ought to be able to expect sophisticated renderings. The comedy was done quite well but was allowed to swamp all the play's other moods, and nearly all the gravity and intellectual complexity of the play was cut. That said, Laura Pyper was a perfect Cressida. - Thomas Karshan | 04 Sep 09 |
| The company played as an ensemble in this very difficult play and gave full committment. The range of different voices worked perfectly well. Troilus was truthful and convincing. Cressida was really well cast and acted. Achilles had a knee injury and bravely carried on. Much much better than the reviews in the papers would have you believe. - Hilary Lister | 14 Aug 09 |
| Granted, this is a difficult play, but this was a disappointing production. Much of Shakespeare's poetry was obscured by the performers' delivery, or seemed to have been cut by the director, including Pandarus' curtain speech, which was unrecognizable from the original. The acting was hugely uneven, especially the use of the voice. Some performers mumbled, and a wild range of local accents were apparent. There was a dull sameness in the rhythm of the vocal delivery for most performers that became tedious (except when they were engaging in over-the-top screaming or shouting). The very amusing and sardonic Thersites was a notable exception. The otherwise decorative warriors were tatooed to excess. There was some very odd staging--in fact, the whole production seemed staged for a proscenium rather than the Globe's thrust stage. Troilus' witnessing of Cressida's semi-tryst with Diomedes was confusing, with Troilus hovering immediately behind Cressida like a wraith when he should be lurking more reasonably in the dark, as Shakespeare suggested. Hector's death was placed on stage instead of offstage in Shakespeare's original--fine--but he didn't lift a finger to defend himself in a largely ritualistic execution that seemed out of place with the vigorous swordplay (actually one of the high notes of the evening) seen earlier between him and Ajax. These are just a few of the strange notes that I would have to lay at the feet of the director. After an enormously successful "As You Like It" at the Globe the previous night, this was a letdown. - William O. Beeman | 27 Jul 09 |
