Oxford Theatre Guild has pulled off a minor miracle with its production of Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well in Oxford University Parks!
The evening was glorious, warm and dry, and the 60-year-old am-dram society took one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known comedies, transposed it to 30’s France and gave us a wonderful evening.
‘Oxford Theatre Guild has pulled off a minor miracle with its production of Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well’
The play itself is problematic; full of greedy, deceitful, snobbish, and carelessly lustful characters, there’s almost no-one to like. Love is (mostly) simply transactional, any genuine feelings fall to the wayside unnoticed and we arrive at the cynical conclusion – all’s well that ends well, irrespective of the collateral damage along the way.
Yet director Richard Readshaw READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH HIM HERE transforms the bitter and cynical plot into a witty and elegant evening of outdoor theatre – all set to stylish music from Django Rheinhardt.
‘Characters hop in and out of bed with whoever happens to be there, mistaken identities abound, but in the end the girl gets the boy and the ring. Good luck to her’
In brief, Helen, a doctor’s daughter, effects a miracle cure for the King of France, who then promises her any suitor she fancies. It turns out to be Bertram, Count Rousillion, who does a great turn as a shallow, vain, and foolish young man, running away to war to avoid marrying a lovely, devoted young woman. What she sees in him is anyone’s guess.
Increasingly preposterous shenanigans follow, lead by Bertram’s sidekick captain, Parolles, played brilliantly by Kate Onyett, taunted and aped by a miscellaneous group of junior noblemen – Niall Carmody, Chloe Funnell, Jessie McMahon, Achyuth Ashok, Keven Huang – all brilliantly choreographed.
Characters hop in and out of bed with whoever happens to be there, mistaken identities abound, but in the end the girl gets the boy, and the ring. Good luck to her.
‘go and enjoy yourselves!’
The moral centre is held by a wonderful Countess Rousillon, played beautifully (and audibly) by the excellent Fleur Yerbury-Hodgson and we could do worse than heading her instruction to her foolish son as he runs away to war: “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
And with that, all’s well that ends well.
Sheila Bailey
OTG’s ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL runs at Oxford University Parks until July 25 – go and enjoy yourselves! https://www.ticketsoxford.com/events/alls-well-that-ends-well
