Its billed as The Tragicomicall Historie of Cardenio, a lost play said to be written by Shakespeare and Fletcher, reconstructed here by Dr Bernard Richards. Tragically, there was very little comedy in this performance, and opportunities for it abounded, with all the cross-dressing and gender confusion, not to mention opportunities for bawdy jokes about bestiality and comic interludes for shepherds and the lovers parents which all could have been milked more. The story is taken from an episode in Cervantes Don Quixote. It tells of a Duke (Don Henriquez) who does a Don Giovanni act and seduces a working class girl (Violante) under the promise of marrying her, then abandons her, only to fall in love with an upper class girl (Leonora) who is about to marry a young nobleman in his service (Roderick). Henriquez snatches Leonora away from Roderick. Violante runs away, disguised as a shepherd lad. A chase ensues. Henriquez brother tries to sort things out, and takes his brothers side, until the truth about Henriquez actions is revealed and the tables are turned on him. When Henriquez turns his affections once again towards Violante, this allows the young lovers Roderick and Leonora to be reunited, and everything settles down happily in the Spanish sun.There is more to this play than meets the eye and the company failed to bring out the tremendous contemporary drama in phrases such as tyrant God! Add this to softly-spoken dialogue, strange mannerisms, with Don Bernard, Leonoras father, bouncing about the stage like Tigger and quixotic pronunciation (victuals rather than vittals, for example) and I was left feeling Id rather read the play than see it acted in this way.Attention to period detail was inconsistent a quaint affectation in the programme of using a period font and applying Mr to all actors names whether male or female referring to the convention of having male actors play female parts was balanced by some strange decisions regarding costume. Whereas I grant it is impractical to go to the lengths of ensuring seams are hand-stitched in a low-budget student production, the use of modern rick-rack, elastic and shirts with metal lacing holes, in combination with specially-made costumes and well-chosen fabrics for the nobler characters shows an unfocused approach that hampered the communication of this story to the audience. It deserved better treatment.
