King John - Terrible King, Even Worse Play? Well, that’s not the view of Rendered Retina theatre company who, in their own words, have cut two hours, added plenty of songs, and turned it into the Bard’s best blockbuster.
A truly excellent performance from a talented trio
As with many of Shakespeare’s tragedies, King John is packed with characters, plots, and an overly long running time (three hours!). The plot can sound a bit of a handful: King John of England and the King of France battle for power, forge a tentative truce, and fight a whole lot more. As one of Shakespeare’s early works, it has been accused of lacking the rhythmic grace of his later king-based plays.
With a leap and a bounce, the trio of Tom Mangan, Alex Mangan, and Jordan Choi grace the stage to announce with aplomb that they’re going to ‘fix’ what has been described as Shakespeare’s worst play. There’s a touch of the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works of William Shakespeare about the proceedings, but the talented trio bring their own energy to the performance.
The performance segues between Shakespearean dialogue to move the plot forward and witty, well-crafted musical numbers accompanied by guitar. The split approach works well and helps make the Shakespearean dialogue accessible to a mass-market audience by providing a musical explanation in many cases.
Simple staging but clever use of props helps give this a ‘perfect fringe show’ vibe. Hats help represent a cast of twenty, with jails and castles pulled from a simple box. There are plenty of clever flourishes and tricks throughout that add depth to this show and keep the energy pulsing—cardboard cutouts leaping to their deaths from castle ramparts, thrilling fights that repeat at double-time, kingly conferences with a plentiful cast (but only two chairs).
There’s an appreciative audience at the show, and it’s clear that the energy and skills of these three have found their mark. The five-minute recap at the end was a particularly strong way to highlight the best bits of the show and give the audience one more opportunity to appreciate them.
Coming to the Prague Fringe, you’re never quite sure what’s around the corner (apart from the stag dos). This was a truly excellent performance from a talented trio. The last time they performed at Prague Fringe was 2019. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another five years for their next show.
