All Is But Fantasy at the RSC’s The Other Place – review

In America, award-winning Whitney White has been a force of nature on and Off-Broadway as an actor, musician, composer and director. Now she’s shaking things up at the RSC with this bold Shakespeare collaboration.

White, a Tony Award nominee for Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, has put herself very much centre stage in All Is But Fantasy. As writer and composer, she gives herself all the headline roles in what toys between being a passion project and potential self-indulgence.

Focusing on the perspectives of four mainly-female Shakespearean characters, it’s feministic and intriguing from the start. Part-musical, part-essay, there are regular interludes with key scenes from the Bard’s plays.

Split across two productions, Part One is a two-hour 40-minute journey with Lady Macbeth and Emilia, Desdemona’s maid in Othello. There’s a sharp, witty script and even stronger songs.

Part Two continues with Juliet and Richard III for two hours and 18 minutes, but with no introduction, there’s an assumption everyone has seen its predecessor. That’s advisable for it to make complete sense.

“I love Shakespeare,” White declares in her opening scene. Yet love and hate go hand in hand as All Is But Fantasy is a personal reflection on her anger at all the shortcomings, especially around women and race and how these tropes continue.

There’s a clever play within a play element featuring conversations between the actors (White as Woman and Daniel Krikler’s Man) that mirror the storyline of the play they are recreating.

Soutra Gilmour’s simple stage design turns the Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon into a gig venue with a live band and a backdrop of large sash windows. A red carpet is rolled out or a chandelier, but for the most part, the singers’ vibrancy fills the space.

Stylised themes for each section kick off with pop music for Lady Macbeth, where White is a Beyoncé-style figure in a leather jacket and a trio of backing singers. Emilia, in contrast, is a throwback to the 1970s, heady with Blues. For me, this was stronger with poignant dialogue between White’s Emilia and Desdemona (Juliette Crosbie), delving into themes of domestic abuse.

In Part Two, Juliet charms Romeo in a 1990s playground with indie music. White has enough acumen to ask uncomfortable questions around pigeon-holing Juliet as a fair-skinned ingénue and society’s over-sexualising young Black girls, which are refreshing to hear at the RSC.

Richard III is filled with 1980s soul but is the least cohesive, despite a power play between actors unfolding as White finally secures the male lead.

There’s no doubt White is a formidable presence and is bolstered by experienced singers with impeccable voices. Timmika Ramsay played Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theatre, Georgina Onuorah was in Hamilton and Shucked at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Renée Lamb, in the original London production of Six the Musical at the Arts Theatre. Krikler and Crosbie are dynamic actors too.

All Is But Fantasy has catchy music coming thick and fast and a pertinent, complex script. There are seeds of promise here and, with a little fine-tuning, it could be masterful.