“Meta-theatrical” and “romp” are never words guaranteed to make my heart soar, even less so finding them on publicity material announcing a three-hour Jacobean comedy that was one of the toughest nights of my theatre-going career when I saw it previously. Never judge a play by its adjectives, though, for this 1607 satire by Francis Beaumont turns out to be a delight in a vibrant production from talented young director Adele Thomas.
The Citizen (Phil Daniels), a grocer, and his Wife (Pauline McLynn) are at the theatre but the play they’re seeing, The London Merchant, doesn’t please them at all (they make canny critics; it’s rather dull). They decide that the action would be improved no end with the insertion of their young apprentice Rafe (Matthew Needham) as a “grocer errant”. There are frolics aplenty — and more than a hint of the gormless nobles of Spamalot — as genres clash and the intimate Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, now thankfully endowed with more generously upholstered seats, proves itself the ideal space for a piece about audience interaction.
All that’s needed is half an hour off the running time.
Until March 30 (020 7401 9919, shakespearesglobe.com)
