The Two Gentlemen of Verona at RSC’s The Other Place – review

How do you take one of Shakespeare’s more problematic plays, complete with suspect sexual mores, attempted rape and violent bandits, and turn it into a summer romp for all the family? The RSC is hoping it has come up with the answer in this frenetic, non-stop 90-minute version of Two Gents.

First, take a scalpel to the text. Gone are all the dark undertones of the titular gents’ rivalry for the favours of the innocent Sylvia that so often make this an uncomfortable watch. Downplayed is any notion that the spurned Proteus might force himself upon the poor girl in the forest. And heavily promoted is a boisterous sense of fun and silliness at the expense of any difficult or challenging subtext.

Instead, we get a lightning dash through the main plot points – pals fall out over a girl, they both come unstuck in different ways, all’s well that ends well – and a lot of running around with musical interludes. And a dog.

With family audiences clearly in mind, director Joanna Bowman sacrifices subtlety and danger in her breezy redrafting in favour of accessibility and brightness. In Francis O’Connor’s modern-day design, The Other Place has been reconfigured in the round, with a vast metal gantry running from one corner to another, adorned with neon lights blazing “love is blind”, and it’s this that provides the recurring theme, for better or worse depending on your viewpoint.

Composer John Patrick Elliott has created a dynamic electro-based score, performed by the actors on a variety of live instruments to a recorded backing track, and it brings yet more energy and punch to an already pumped-up show. In fact, everything seems to be just a bit too big for the space, from the set itself to many of the elevated performances.

Jonny Khan and Lance West are believable enough as the bros who end up battling, while Siân Stephens is somewhat sidelined as the object of their rivalry, spending quite a lot of time stranded in a cage in the middle of the overhead gantry. Predictably, performing pooch Lossi steals the limelight and the audience’s affection, although Stu McLoughlin does a pretty good comic job as his downtrodden handler-cum-sidekick Launce.

There is lots of doubling among the rest of the cast, with Darrell Brockis making a strong Duke and Tom Babbage delightfully pathetic as another would-be suitor. Intelligent use is made of the staging so the problems that often beset in-the-round performances are neatly bypassed for most of the action, and the occasional interaction with the audience is well-judged and entertaining without becoming cringey.

It’s firmly and unashamedly aimed at Shakespeare newbies, and is billed in the programme as a “joyous” and “compact” adaptation, which seems fair. There’s certainly no shortage of enthusiasm and, if the characters’ motivations for much of what happens get lost along the way, it’s still pretty clear in its narrative drive and overriding sense of light-heartedness.