Saturday. July 9, 2011
In the past eight years, I’ve now seen eight productions at the RSC . Of them, I have enjoyed two: 2004’s Macbeth and this production of Cardenio. Unto itself, there is much to be critical of within the play itself. The character of Fernando is so incredibly despicable that it becomes somewhat difficult to care about his arc through the story because you really just want him to fall into a pit and die rather than be forgiven by his lady-friend and living happily ever after. Nonetheless, taking a nod from the fun loving and unpretentious simplicity of productions at the Globe, this work was presented with perhaps a few too many moments of mugging and tomfoolery to really soar, but I certainly appreciated the approach. Oliver Rix made his RSC debut in the title role and he was really charming and fun to watch. In spite of his character’s misgivings, Alex Hassell too was a delight.
Like The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII, Cardenio is thought to have been a collaboration between Shakespeare and John Fletcher. First performed in 1613, the work was mysteriously not included in the Folio of 1623, nor was it ever published and long thought to have been lost. Not until 1727 is thee play Double Falshood performed in London RSC production expands upon the 1727 script, adding scenes that are included in the original source material (Cervantes’ Don Quixote) but omitted from the 1727 script. The dialogue is nowhere near as clever as we would normally expect from Shakespeare, nor is the structure as tight, but onto itself, the work had many amusing moments and is indeed a worthy relic to be considered for inclusion in secondary theatre studies.
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