Review: Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare's Globe)

Review by Stephen Gilchrist

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Troilus and Cressida, or to give it its full title, ‘The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida’ is often considered, by late 19^th century Shakespeare scholars, as a ‘Problem Play,’ a play centred on a social or political problem in such a way as to promote debate, but not easy resolution. It is not difficult to see why it is so considered. Despite it being entitled a ‘Tragedy’, it does easily fall into the Bard’s catalogue of plays of that genre, and is not easily classified as either a tragedy or a comedy.

On the one hand, on the page at least, it has a violent conclusion and an unresolved love affair, on the other it is full of bawdy humour and sexual innuendo. Its dramatis personae derive from those heroic characters in Greek mythology, yet they are frequently treated in a deliberately unheroic way, so much so that recent commentators consider it a satire on hero and celebrity worship, and in its take on the central love story, discreet cynicism.

Director Owen Horsley has opted for a full-on racy satire, complete with character gender reversal, sexual ambiguity, and characterisations with which audiences today (as with Elizabethan audiences) can recognise from television and popular culture. And it works magnificently! Shakespeare never underestimated his audience. He assumed they had an awareness of the background to this drama, the Trojan Wars, and some knowledge at least, of those personages from both classical and medieval sources, primarily Homer's Iliad and Chaucer’s ‘Troilus and Cressida’ (1602). More so than audiences today, I suspect.

In summary, and on the page, Troilus and Cressida is set in the seventh year of the siege of Troy by the Greeks. The Trojan war was triggered by Paris’s abduction of the Greek princess Helen to the Trojan camp. Its plot points follow the doomed love affair between Trojan prince Troilus and the beautiful Cressida, who is exchanged for a prisoner and sent to the Greek camp, where she quickly becomes involved with the Greek general Diomedes. In the background, the proud Greek hero Achilles sulks in his tent while the valiant Trojan hero Hector challenges the Greek army. The play culminates in a cynical, brutal battle where Achilles, enraged by the death of his companion Patroclus, kills Hector in combat, foreshadowing the fall of Troy. So now you know.

Horsely turns the play on its head. Costuming is a mix and match of the mythological and the contemporary, whilst the direction definitely places the piece in modern times. Heroic characters such as Ajax (Ibrahim Toure), Achilles (David Caves), and Paris (Matthew Spencer) and others are viewed as narcissistic and boastful self-aggrandizing ninnies. The philosophic Ulysses (Jodie Mcnee) is depicted as a business-like lesbian administrator, who also comes on to Cressida after her arrival at the Greek camp.

Troilus (Kasper Hilton-Hille) plays the charmingly naïve lover with Candid-like innocence as he pursues his flighty Cressida (Charlotte O’Leary), a contrastingly complex character with sharp wit, an awareness of her own commodification, and a journey from staunch loyalty to perceived betrayal. Both are absolutely excellent. Helen (Lucy McCormick) is portrayed as a rather sad, drug-fuelled celebrity pop Princess. Audiences may be reminded of the tragic Amy Winehouse.

And now I come to the heart of this production which lifts it from an enjoyably accomplished romp to a dazzling triumph. Samantha Spiro plays Pandarus, Cressida’s naughty, risqué and indelicate matchmaking aunt. It is a part which is gender revered since, as written, the character is her uncle. It is a wonderful and revealing conceit!

I have always admired Spiro, who earlier on in her career made a good living out of her portrayal of Barbara Windsor. Here, more than anything, she channels Julie Waters ‘Mrs Overall’ from Acorn Antiques. As an Eastender look-alike she chatters, suffers from wheezing fits, and moves in a rather haphazard fashion as she endeavours to get Troilus and Cressida together. In the original text, Pandarus is Cressida’s lecherous and degenerate uncle and guardian. The gender reversal works perfectly and is perfectly consistent with the director’s often farcical vision of this entertainment. Spiro’s articulation and understanding of the text and comic timing is consummate. I cannot imagine Will himself, would have any objection to her casting.  She really is the centrepiece of this showing of the ‘problem play’.

I could not identify a single weak performance as the company of fourteen bestrode the Globe stage on which stood a giant version of what audiences would recognise as a take on Terry Gilliam’s emblematic ‘Monty Python foot’ (design by Ryan Dawson Laight)—you know, the giant foot that randomly stamps down from the heavens obliterating objects beneath it, a satirical comment on the Gods’ control over, and ridicule of, their human pawns. On press night the cast and the groundlings battled some atrocious weather but that did not dim the pure joy of leaving the theatre having seen something really special.

Troilus and Cressida plays at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre until October 26^th

For tickets and information visit https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/troilus-and-cressida/

Photos by Helen Murray