Synopsis In Extremis uses the love affair of Abelard and Heloise to explore the relationships between logic and religion, humanism and fundamentalism, faith and power. Set in 12th century France, the play focuses on the exploration of two types of Christianity - the mysticism and austerity of Bernard of Clairvaux, and the challenge set by a new rational philosophy extolled by the erudite, sensual and dangerously independent, Peter Abelard. Edges of Rome Season
Howard Brenton’s In Extremis received its world premiere this past weekend at Shakespeare’s Globe (Friday 1 September 2006, previews from 27 August), where it’s the final production in Dominic Dromgoole’s inaugural summer season as Globe artistic director (See News, 11 Jan 2006).
Based on the 12th-century French story of the love affair between Abelard and Heloise, an intellectual abbot and his young prioress, played by Oliver Boot (pictured) and Sally Bretton, In Extremis is another play full of controversial themes by the author of The Romans in Britain and last year’s Paul at the National. In Extremis is directed by John Dove and continues in rep at the Globe until 7 October 2006.
First night critics were impressed with the play, enjoying the “gripping” story of the two lovers. They said that, although Brenton takes liberties with the original story and some of the text is slightly jarring, his political and moral points are presented with clarity and put into frighteningly modern contexts.
Carole Woddis on Whatsonstage.com – “In Extremis… is not only a rumbustious historical drama but, in (the protagonists’) fiercely argued stance against Christian orthodoxy, the most timely play-for-today in a modern world perilously poised between secularism and religious fundamentalism…. Brenton has inevitably also taken liberties in the storytelling…. The delight of In Extremis is not just about its religious jousting. Its intellectual vigour comes as much from the criticism Brenton levels at Abelard and Heloise's hedonistic libertarianism…. in director John Dove's hands and with terrific supporting performances from the ever dependable Sheila Reid, Colin Hurley and Fred Ridgeway, Brenton's liberating play finds the perfect platform on the Globe's stage.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian - “The last play we saw about Abelard and Heloise was the work of Ronald Millar, one of Mrs Thatcher's speech writers, and was all about sex. This new, vastly superior one is by Howard Brenton and is dominated by ideas…. Brenton's interest lies in their intellectual opposition to the Cistercian abbot, Bernard of Clairvaux. The lovers stand for the application of Aristotelian logic to holy scripture; Bernard is a self-denying mystic who believes that faith is a gift from God. In John Dove's lively production… Jack Laskey's Bernard lights up the stage. His whippet-like frame seems full of the tense energy of belief. Oliver Boot's Abelard possesses a similar certitude but also suggests the hypocrisy of a man who uses an altar as a sexual bed. If anything, Sally Bretton's Heloise emerges as the more admirable figure…. But the interest lies in seeing how Brenton's exploration of medieval theology reveals his own divided soul.”
Fiona Mountford in the Evening Standard - This “intellectually bracing offering from Howard Brenton” is “a splendid close to Dominic Dromgoole's inaugural season at the Bankside helm…. Brenton's subject is those infamous 12th-century French lovers, Abelard and Heloise…. He strips away the layers of received wisdom and starts anew, presenting their story in an engagingly pacy and, at times, refreshingly comic manner…. Brenton holds in admirable equilibrium the elements of sexual desire, non-conformism and philosophical ideology that fuelled the couple's relationship…. Yet as a host of fine supporting turns in John Dove’s assured production illustrates, French society wasn't ready for two people to share ideas instead of marriage vows.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times - “True, there are some shallow, silly moments, and more than a few that will leave serious historians chewing at their parchments in dismay, but Brenton sees Peter Abélard, in particular, as much more than a maverick priest who traded his testicles for love. Rather, he is a brilliant thinker and neo-Aristotelian dialectician who tried to reconcile a new humanism with a genuine belief in God. Brenton runs up against the old problem of chronicle drama. He does not always find a modern idiom that adequately substitutes 12th-century speech, which means there are lines that plonk rather than zing…. However, the tale… is undeniably gripping…. John Dove’s production bangs along at a quick pace and is well enough acted, although Sally Bretton has yet to find a way of embodying Heloise’s intellectual gravity as well as her eager eroticism… Oliver Boot, however… is energetic, charismatic, mentally restless, passionate and as offhandedly vain as Abelard undoubtedly was.”
This is a short and very welcome return for Howard Brenton’s vigorous and compelling re-telling of the Abelard and Heloise medieval love story. Oliver Boot and Sally Bretton repeat last September’s performances in the leading roles, and John Bett is again the apoplectic William of Champeaux, exasperated by Peter Abelard’s humanist proto-Protestantism, and Colin Hurley a plumply and hilariously reprised King Louis VI.
Jack Laskey is back, too, giving an outstanding performance as Bernard of Clairvaux, the masochistic, foot-licking ascetic Cistercian abbot who is Abelard’s intellectual duellist in the struggle to establish a church that anticipates the Renaissance and pits the power of mystery against the logical arguments of philosophy.
New to the cast are Eleanor Bron as the unruffled Mother Superior in the nunnery where the lovers have “honeymoon” sex under the altar, and Paul Copley as Heloise’s fussing guardian, whose band of agricultural ruffians inflict the castration ritual on her lover shortly afterwards. Brenton’s dramatic scenography – at the hedonistic court of Louis, in the religious disputes, in the defiant tragedy of the lovers’ separation – is vividly realised in John Dove’s thoroughly entertaining production.
Brenton’s play - first written for the University of California, Davis, ten years ago - was an unexpectedly successful coda to lasts year’s summer Globe season, and proves a delightful curtain-raiser to this year’s repertory.
- Michael Coveney
NOTE: The following FOUR-STAR review dates from September 2006 and this production’s original run at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Suddenly, after an absence of a decade, Howard Brenton is back. To a new generation, he may only be known either as the author of the now notorious The Romans in Britain (revived earlier this year by Sam West in Sheffield) or for his association as a writer for the popular BBC spy series Spooks. In the Seventies and Eighties, however, he was one of the country's leading political playwrights. Now suddenly he has produced two new plays in the past nine months and both about the nature of faith.
For a Marxist atheist, that is more than interesting. After Paul at the National last year, In Extremis takes a typically provocative approach, this time to two of the most famous lovers in history, Abelard and Heloise. Brenton wouldn't be Brenton without a political slant. So In Extremis, the story of their passionate, illicit affair is not only a rumbustious historical drama but, in their fiercely argued stance against Christian orthodoxy, the most timely play-for-today in a modern world perilously poised between secularism and religious fundamentalism.
Rationalists at a time when it certainly was not popular to be so, like Brecht's The Life of Galileo – with which In Extremis shares many points of similarity, not least irreverence – Brenton tells the story of his 12th-century adventurers within a rich dialectical debate about Faith as a God-given mystery and Abelard's championing of Reason as a tool for understanding God more fully.
Unlike Paul, the scales here seem rather too weighed against Abelard's nemesis, the scourging, austerely extreme Bernard of Clairvaux (Jack Laskey, wonderfully ascetic and haunted). Brenton has inevitably also taken liberties in the storytelling.
Abelard was older than handsome young Oliver Boot who plays him here, Sally Bretton's Heloise a famed scholar in her own right. Intellectual equals, he was 15-20 years her senior. But here, Boot, ardent and eloquent. and Bretton, too modern but set the difficult task of straddling infatuation and independence, look the same age. However, the delight of In Extremis is not just about its religious jousting. Its intellectual vigour comes as much from the criticism Brenton levels at Abelard and Heloise's hedonistic libertarianism. Like one of his previous plays about the Shelleys, Bloody Poetry, their idealism is shown to have profound failings.
Whatever the quibbles, in director John Dove's hands and with terrific supporting performances from the ever dependable Sheila Reid, Colin Hurley and Fred Ridgeway, Brenton's liberating play finds the perfect platform on the Globe's stage. Brenton once likened theatre to a ‘bear-pit' where really ‘savage insights' could be displayed. The joy of artistic director Dominic Dromgoole's new Globe regime is that once more topical drama is taking thrilling flight.
I thought that In Extremis by Howard Brenton was an excellent play, with excellent actors and actresses to play the parts. I also thought that Jack Laskey as Bernard of Clairvaux played the part fantasically and also William Mannering as Lotholf was wonderful. I think that the actors made the play come alive and I would like to thank them all for the best play I have ever seen. - 195.93.21.67)
05 Oct 06
Enjoyed this alot more than much of the Shakespeare I've seen here!! Howard Brenton is such a good playwright that he makes the debate between fundamental religion and philosophy into gripping drama shot through with some delightfully quirky (and occasionally filthy humour): the legless burping bishops were a particularly lovely touch. The story of Abelard and Heloise is an interesting one in itself, and in the religious fanatic Bernard of Clarivaux there is a wonderfully ghoulish dramatic creation. John Dove's pacy production features superb acting from Jack Laskey's driven Bernard, Oliver Boot's charismatic but infuriating Abelard, Sheila Reid as an unconventional Abbess and Colin Hurley's camp Louis VI. Sally Bretton as Heloise struck me as a little too modern perhaps but was still heartfelt. All in all, this is a very satisfying, stimulating piece of theatre that makes you laugh and think in equal measure, while also packing a bit of an emotional wallop. One of the best new plays of the year, and an unexpected treat to find it at this address! - 195.82.123.181)
08 Sep 06
Fred Ridgeway gives a star performance in John Doves faultless production of Howard Brentons brilliant play about Abelard and Heloise. Wonderful cast lovely performances from Oliver Boot as Abelard and Sally Bretton as Heloise and Jack Laskey as Bernard but it is Fred Ridgeway as Fulbert who steals the show as betrayed uncle of Heloise. The innocence followed by the pain he portrays is so very moving indeed. 5 stars in every respect. Alan - 80.1.224.8)
04 Sep 06
This production was faultless. Howard Brenton's writing is lucid and absorbing. On paper all that dialectical argument may have looked a touch dry, but it is carried beautifully by the cast. Oliver Boot taps into both Abelard's integrity and his sexuality; it is an excellent performance. Sally Bretton is equally as strong as Heloise and there are great supporting performances from the likes of Jack Laskey as Bernard of Clairveaux and Fred Ridgeway as Fulbert. The play is directed with great verve and fluidity by John Dove and the music sensitively strenghtens our sense of the love of these two people. There is no doubt that The Globe has become a vital part of any theatre lover's life. I highly recommend this magnificant swipe at fundamentalism; it's a wonderful night at the theatre. - 80.194.231.228)
A rebuild of Shakespeare's original Globe theatre close to the original site. Society of London Theatre member. Note: Booking opened March 3rd 1996. Tickets for performances range from £5 (standing in the yard) to £37.50 for the best gallery seats). Induction loop facilities. Wheelchair facilities. Extensive education programme. Restaurant, cafe and bar. Dark during the winter but the museum and venue remain open. One of the few London venues with Sunday performances. The Globe Theatre Season runs from April to October. The Globe Education Centre is located in Park Street and runs an educational autumn season.
Whatsonstage.com - Discount London theatre tickets, theatre news and reviews, Theatre videos, Theatre discussion, National Theatre Listings. Covering London's West End, all of Theatreland and all UK theatre. The best
for London Theatre Ticket Discounts.
