Palamon and Arcite are the two noble kinsmen at the heart of this adaptation of William Shakespeare and John Fletcher’s Jacobean tragicomedy. Chivalrous, touching and devoted to one another in friendship, the pair’s loyalty is tested to its limits when they both fall in love with the same Amazonian woman, Emilia (Sorcha Finch-Murray). Upon imprisonment in Thebes, events spiral beyond their control, and when the stage takes the form of an Athenian wood, the feelings of everyone, their Jailer’s nameless daughter included, become unclear and confused.
Fusing period music and dance, instrumentation, and the altogether more modern idea of dance-theatre, the Just Enough Theatre Company’s version of Shakespeare’s often-neglected play is a thoroughly contemporary adaptation. From its minimalist set design of three separate ladders to the bawdy interludes that are scattered throughout the performance, it does not often feel as though this is a Shakespearean production. However, as the stage gradually becomes crowded with prisoners, princesses and love-struck revellers, the play’s more traditional elements come to the fore. In spite of the various relationships that we are bombarded with in both Athens and Thebes, we are not offered any judgement on what form of love is best.
The director, John East’s, vision for this play is clear. The actors are well-versed and passionate, the theatre space of a converted church is suitably otherworldly, and the play’s more modern asides are juxtaposed deftly with Shakespearean prose. However, there is a feeling that almost too much has been crammed into this love story. When the Jailer’s daughter, played by Phoebe Kemp, is lost and wandering in the Athenian forest with an unexplained trombone for company, it feels as though the production is trying a little too hard with its modern references. The prose is powerful, and it is strong enough without the gimmicky instruments and props. The production fares much better when it relies solely on its actors – the exchanges between Palamon and Arcite, for instance, are beautifully simple in their authenticity.
As the only Shakespearean play never to be adapted for film or television and the only Shakespearean play not to be put on as part of the Cultural Olympiad’s World Shakespeare Festival this year, The Two Noble Kinsmen is definitely due a moment in the spotlight. Unfortunately, however, the Just Enough Theatre Company’s rendering is unlikely to set producers’ hearts aflutter.
