Comedy detracts from Tragedy

The Revenger's Tragedy
Southwark Playhouse
***

Thomas Middleton's Revenger's Tragedy is a tough one to judge. At one turn, it's a serious-minded and vigorously poetic attack on decadent immorality. At another, it's a fast-paced, exuberantly comic piece full of sitcom plot-twists.

Promoting the latter elements and rather ignoring the former, this romp of a revival certainly entertains, but it's a moot point whether it does the play justice.

The casting in the lead role of Kris Marshall, still of My Family fame despite distancing himself from the TV comedy, defines the piece. His character, Vindici, desperate to avenge the poisoning of his beloved, disguises himself as a servant of the duke's son.

Soon, he's aiding in the seduction of his own sister, and his own assassination. Marshall's amused detachment draws in the audience as delighted conspirators in these japes.

Around him, things are similarly light-hearted. Heir to the dukedom Lussorioso is a fun, camp epicure, and his brothers gleefully ham up their murderous ambition.

It's jolly. But the humour should go hand in hand with a sense of outrage at a world gone to the devil. This, after all, is a court where rape is defended as 'sweet sport of which the world approves'.

Rather than dwell on this, director Gavin McAlinden plays up the absurdities of the genre. Right down to the final multiple murder, the irony is multi-layered, the tone too merry to be disapproving. Graver moments seem out of place.

Marshall seems to rush his lines whenever depth or poetry is required. The evening skips past, and quickly from the memory.