THE HAPPY PRINCE - LIVE THEATRE AT LAST
How to be happy in a pandemic? I have a powerful antedote to dull and greying humours: Dr Theatre. On Saturday afternoon I saw two things that lifted my spirits: a live play and an even more live audience. The setting was the spacious gardens of the Good Shepherd church in Arbury (bring a chair or blanket!) and the piece was an adapation of Oscar Wilde’s charming morality tale for children, ‘The Happy Prince’.
It was one of several outdoor performances by the sparky Corkscrew Theatre and as far as I’m aware, it’s the first piece of live theatre in Cambridge for six months. So party hats off to them for such initiative for the outcome was indeed incredibly happy. Looking around at the large audience (families, kids, grandparents and good folks from the charity Red Hen Project), there were collective smiles all around the garden, eyes twinkling with delight, faces rapt and attention utterly focused.
What they were enjoying was a funny, delightfully re-jigged tale. A cast of five and one on-stage accordionist (the endlessly talented Geoff Page), told Wilde’s whimsical story about the statue of a once happy (because misery was hidden from him) but now deceased prince who is consigned to perpetual smiling as his image is now set in stone, rictus grin and all. Not even his coverings of gold leaf and jewel-encrusted eyes and heart can really make him happy. Only one thing can: the relief of misery of the living. Aided by a lost summer swallow, he happily gives up his expensive bling coatings and instructs the lonely bird to distribute the glitter to the needy of the town. True happiness comes not in diamonds and gold, but in helping others (what a suitable message for our times!)
It was not only a true delight to watch real actors in 3-D stereo (without sound interference except for the occasional ambulance siren in the roads nearby); but also the wonderful acting of the Corkscrew troupe and an ambitiously successful script by Sophie McMahon who also played one of the two ‘players’. Partnered with the always excellent Will Males, the two played ambitious actors who helped tell the story but often jockeyed for limelight. Matt Wilkinson was characteristically strong as the Storyteller whose role was to push the narrative along despite constant ‘interruptions’ from the two players attempting, no doubt, to attract the attention of a fictitious agent in the audience. Males’ constant attempt to interpose a fancy Shakespearean soliquoy into the play had true Morecambe and Wise moments. Holly Masters was astonishingly good as the love-lorn swallow, caught between her desire to fly south to join her flock or to stay behind and do good works urged on by the calcified prince. David John perfectly caught the stony prince’s underlying humanity behind the chiselled smile.
The set simple but effective: a pile of wood and stones to show that the prince’s statue had been junked by the townsfolk (yes, there were references to current statue-demolitions), deliberately naïve sets (reeds and flowers) and a double line of rope to mark out the actor/audience divide. Playful and fluent direction by Lesley Ford meant that the action never sagged or retreated into Victorian mawkishness. It was very funny and yet charmingly moving.
Though one swallow does not a summer make, this Swallow certainly brought warmth and joy back into our lives. Never mind the Happy Prince, let’s celebrate a very Happy Audience.
