I seem to be in another Shakespeare immersion phase again – the fourth time in my life, I think. This time around I’m especially interested in the plays that I’ve failed to connect with well previously ‒ King John was something of a revelation last year.
Now it’s the turn of All’s Well That Ends Well, a wonderful
production in the main house at Stratford. This is truly how I experience
Shakespeare best: an uncluttered stage; real belief in the plot, the characters
and the words; a modern staging, but without supermarket trolleys (Nancy
Meckler the director); and great acting from a cast which was also a completely
interdependent ensemble.
Especially noteworthy were Joanna Horton’s Helena, Alex
Waldmann’s feckless Bertram, Jonathan Slinger’s brilliant Parolles, Greg
Hicks’s King of France, and the fabulous Charlotte Cornwell’s Countess of
Roussillion.
Together they made this often underrated “problem comedy”
seem like genuine premier-league Shakespeare.
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