Cardenio Review (The Rose Theatre / Aporia Theatre Collective)

-
It's not all tube strangers and hula hoop letters here at Minty Bit Stronger. I also like to occasionally offer up some culture to feed my readers vociferous intellectual appetites. The culture I speak of is theatrical in this instance. A play called Cardenio, arguably a lost Shakespeare masterpiece, being performed at the spooky Rose Theatre.

 Cardenio could be described as a play about two women who share little similarity besides their mistreatment and objectification by men; conceivably a one act tragedy about feminine rebellion in an age of accepted misogyny. This is what I took for my truth. A play so rich and beautifully complex as Cardenio has any number of themes to satiate a theatre goers thirst. The themes of power, ownership, fidelity and duty sit alongside themes of love, family, sacrifice and honour.
 
 The title character Cardenio (Matt Gibbs) and Luscinda (Paloma Oakenfold) are in love, but she is passionately desired by King Fernando (Ryan Burkwood). The King has the power to take her and is given license to do so by Luscinda's own power hungry conniving mother, Helvetia (Chris Range). But the King resists because he would prefer Luscinda to come to him of her own volition. The play spins forth from here with melodrama and grace in equal measure. The two women battling for control of their own destinies.

 Cardenio is beautifully performed and staged in a venue dripping with history and archeological ruin. The actors are ghosts forced to replay their Jacobean tragedy down the shadow of history. The representative style of performance sits well with the text and the influence of feudal Japan lends a fresh perspective and elegance. The climatic, final few minutes illicit disgust, horror and surprise but the journey to them shows human nature beautifully in a way only a great ensemble working with a great director can.

 Cardenio runs until the 29th September 2012
Tickets are available at www.rosetheatre.org.uk
www.aporiatheatre.com/index.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Gay Inspiration

-
Image
I am inspired by many great people and consider myself relatively well informed historically. I however am often at a loss to find a comprehensive history of major Gay historical figures. This is simply because from the start of the Christian era homosexuality has been frowned upon in most cultures of the world. It has been criminalised, ignored, wiped from the record and in some cases eradicated or imprisoned. Horrifically, after the Jews were liberated from the concentration camps of Nazi Germany many homosexuals forced to wear the pink triangle (pictured above) were re-imprisoned in Allied prisons. Because of this persecution and because of the ‘lost history’ I wanted to highlight three homosexuals who I believe have had a positive, lasting and inspiring effect on the world, (and me). Alan Turing Staying with WW2 and our battle with the Nazis I want first to look at a quiet mathematician from Maida Vale. During the Second World War at Bletchley Park we as a nation we
Read more

Family Circle Fan Letter

-
Image
Dear Sir or Madam,   I am so excited to be writing to you. I really like the ‘clickity’, ‘clackity’ noise of the keyboard under my finger tips. However, I am surprised it’s not more of a ‘thub’, ‘thub’ sound because my keyboard is full of biscuit crumbs. I like your biscuits so much it makes me sad to think there might be a whole biscuits worth of crumbs hiding under the letters on my keyboard. In fact this is my reason for writing this letter today. Simply put, your biscuits are the best. They are one of the things that make me happy to come to work because my boss likes buying us biscuits for when we do well at stuff. I do well at stuff all the time so I can get more biscuits. I hate to have favourites because I think it shows favouritism and can make people sad. But biscuits aren’t people so it’s ok to have a favourite and my favourite biscuit is the Happy Face one. If biscuits were like people and had feelings I wouldn’t tell them because I like all the others too, an
Read more

A Minty Guide to Paris

-
Image
I’ve always said ‘I like Starbucks, but I wouldn’t want to work there’. This Robert-ism is meant to illustrate the idea that working somewhere, like living somewhere, can erode the magic or mystique of a place. Sometime it’s better just to visit rather than stay. I am not in fact a massive fan of Starbucks for the record and only say this little ditty to make my point clear. I am however a massive fan of Paris and think that this could be a great place to live, not just visit. If I didn’t already love London so much I think I’d be looking for small flats around the fifth arrondissement of Paris otherwise known as the Latin Quarter. Given I now think I am an expert on the city (you can be the judge) I would like to present you my guide to Paris. Firstly, if you are travelling by Eurostar you will find yourself in the not-so-great Gare du Nord Station. Get this bit over quickly and avoid being accosted by strangers. Thieves, (usually Eastern European) expect you to be a littl
Read more