The Fool

The Fool begins in 1815, with a post-Waterloo England in the
throes of industrial and agricultural turmoil. The well-trodden
territory of class unrest is explored, as a rural community, freed from
the Napoleonic threat, struggles to shake off the tyranny of feudalism.
The iconic scene where a frenzied mob rob and strip the local pastor,
all but clawing the flesh from his bones, is deeply disturbing.

What emerges from this whirlpool of desperation is the story of the
skirt-chasing, poet-peasant John Clare, whose brief peak declines into
the “grotesque oblivion” of madness.

Such is the rigour of Bond’s direction that he raises the Cock’s
festival to a new height.  At times he slows the action almost to a
halt, allowing the actors to fully inhabit the moment, and no
opportunity passes by untapped.

Bond has a terrific cast to work with. Ben Crispin is hypnotic as
the poet and, as his wife Patty, both hectoring and vulnerable, Rosanna
Miles brims with tears in her silent suffering. James Kenward, who
impressed earlier in the season in Olly’s Prison, is excellent as
the doomed Darkie, as is the willowy Rebecca Smith-Williams as Clare’s
“other wife” Mary.

This is undoubtedly a highlight of the season so far, an evening
that is likely to leave a deep impression.

– Simon Thomas