Considering its origin – written in London during lockdown (during the plague of 1592-93) and its central, gender role-reversing premise: hot-for-it female given the cold shoulder by frigid male, this restaging of Greg Doran’s 2004 production of Shakespeare’s Venus & Adonis seems very timely. ‘It’s miraculous’ Shakespeare’s erotic Venus & Adonis hits Oxford Playhouse using poetry, music and puppetry, narrated by Simon Russell Beale
‘Can puppets really do passionate and erotic?’ I wondered aloud as we took our seats at the Oxford Playhouse
This hour-long poem by the Bard is billed as comic, tragic, passionate and erotic. And it’s a puppet show. Proper 4ft high, wooden puppets no less. ‘Can puppets really do passionate and erotic?’ I wondered aloud to my friend as we took our seats at the Oxford Playhouse. ‘Sure,’ she reassured me, ‘Puppets can do anything.’
And she wasn’t wrong. From the first minute, as puppet dogs and horses raced across the stage in anticipation of the arrival of the two toga-clad central protagonists (manned at all times by four wonderfully skilled and unobtrusive puppeteers), you could feel that the whole audience was immediately entranced and enveloped in this show’s magic.
‘you could feel that the whole audience was immediately entranced and enveloped in this show’s magic’
But back to the plot. Over the course of a single day, Venus is deliriously ga-ga about gorgeous Adonis, who seems to be an all-looks-zero-personality kind of a guy and really just wants to be rid of this crazy goddess and go off boar-hunting with his mates.
She tries everything to get her guy: tenderness, force, even fainting at one point. Her comical touches are at times reminiscent of Miss Piggy’s frustrated advances to Kermit, as Adonis remains steadfastly non-plussed. She skips, dances, twirls and even flies; she kisses, strokes and writhes around Adonis, at one stage forcibly pulling him from his horse. But he remains a no-go.
‘venus’ comical touches are at times reminiscent of Miss Piggy’s frustrated advances to Kermit, as Adonis remains steadfastly non-plussed’
All of which is enthusiastically narrated by Simon Russell Beale, who ensures that Shakespeare’s themes of love versus lust and mortality, and the ravages of time, are clearly communicated, accompanied by Nick Lee’s plaintive musical accompaniment by way of classical Elizabethan guitar.
As the light begins to fade, so does Venus’ hopes for Adonis’ safe return from his hunting expedition. As she ponders death and its relationship with love, several hundred audience jaws drop at the same time and there’s one huge collective intake of breath as the whole stage metamorphoses into the Grim Reaper. It’s a remarkable climax to a spell-binding show.
Edward Bliss
VENUS & ADONIS runs at Oxford Playhouse until Saturday June 20 https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/events/venus-and-adonis
