Theatre reviews: Seven brides for seven brothers, Richard II and Three days in the country

Regent’s Park’s trees provide a magical backdrop to Seven Brides

ONLY Hollywood could take the Roman legend of the Rape of the Sabine Women, transpose it to 19th century Oregon, and add such scintillating songs and dances that the audience is left cheering the abductors Rachel Kavanagh and the talented team behind this revival of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers give MGM a run for their money.

 

Of all the Golden Age musicals, its bucolic setting makes it most suitable for open air production, and the delicately lit trees provide a magical backdrop to Peter McKintosh’s rustic set. 

It is best not to inquire too closely into the show’s sexual politics, as backwoodsman Adam (the bluff Alex Gaumond) brings his new wife home to drudge for his six brothers.   But self-reliant Milly (Laura Pitt-Pulford, magnificently blending delicacy and determination) proves herself more than their match. 

Of the new songs added to the original score, only Milly’s One Man is a match for classics such as Wonderful Day and Spring, Spring, Spring.  Others, like Adam’s A Woman Ought to Know Her Place, overstate emotions more subtly expressed in the film.  But the high spirits – and high kicks – of the excellent ensemble make it an evening to treasure.

Simon Godwin’s production of Richard II is admirably spare and clearly spoken, but sadly unengaging.   Although an interpolated prologue featuring the young Richard’s coronation neatly highlights the belief in the divine right of kings, little else other than Paul Wills’ glorious golden set (shades of the Wilton Diptych) creates the requisite medieval atmosphere.

In one of his more reflective speeches, Richard declares “Thus play I in one person many people.”  

Charles Edwards, while lucid and lyrical, never decides which of those people – narcissist, peacock, poet, murderer – to emphasise, resulting in a strangely unfocussed performance.  It is left to supporting actors, notably William Chubb and Sarah Woodward as one of Shakespeare’s few happily married couples, to supply the passion.  

 

The title is the only thing that’s diminished in Patrick Marber’s splendid adaptation of Turgenev’s bittersweet comedy. A Month in the Country becomes Three Days in the Country, but all the romance, pathos and humour of Turgenev’s portrait of the rural gentry survives, enhanced by Marber’s aphoristic wit.

The mercurial Amanda Drew leads an outstanding cast, including John Light as her husband, Lynn Farleigh as her mother-in-law and John Simm, particularly fine, as her eternal suitor, together with Mark Gatiss as the worldly doctor seemingly obligatory in 19th century Russian drama.   

This third hit in a row crowns an exceptional year for Marber at the National.

VERDICT: 4/5

SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, London NW1(Tickets 0844 826 4242/openairtheatre.com; £25-65)

RICHARD II at Shakespeare’s Globe, London SE1 (Tickets 020 7902 1400/shakespearesglobe.com; £17-43)

THREE DAYS IN THE COUNTRY at the National, London SE1 (Tickets 020 7452 3000/nationaltheatre.org.uk; £15-55)