The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Director: Simon Godwin
Writer: William Shakespeare
Cast: Mark Arends, Michael Marcus, Sarah MacRae, Pearl Chanda, Jonny Glynn, Nicholas Gerard-Martin

Plot:
Valentine (Michael Marcus) and Proteus (Mark Arends) have been best friends forever. But now it’s time for Valentine to leave for Milan to see the world, while Proteus wants to remain in Verona because of his love, Julia (Pearl Chanda). But then Proteus’ father sends him to Milan anyway. Valentine, in the meantime, has fallen for Silvia (Sarah MacRae), though her father, the Duke (Jonny Glynn) knows nothing about it and plans to marry her to Turio (Nicholas Gerard-Martin). When Proteus arrives in Milan, Valentine thinks that he has gained an ally, but Proteus falls in love with Silvia himself, breaking Julia’s heart when she travels after him, disguised as Sebastian.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona is probably not Shakespeare’s best play. And the production I saw didn’t hit all the right notes either. But it still made for a rather entertaining evening.

Without a doubt, the absolute highlight of the show was surprisingly not the dog, but Nicholas Gerard-Martin and his Turio. Here impeccable comic timing, the modern setting and the direction came together and had me laughing until I cried, especially when Turio sings. It was wonderful.

As for the rest of the play things never really got quite so right as they did in this scene. Especially because the story arc of one of the protagonists didn’t work. Neither play nor director nor actor were able to sell me Proteus or his redemption in the end. It came all too sudden to be meaningful and felt immensly unfair to Julia who really has the worst end of this deal. (Though Valentine’s attempt to give Silvia to Proteus is not the most commendable thing either.)

The modern setting was nice for the most part but the club scenes were really, really out of place. It also didn’t translate very well anymore when the play moves into the forest (which was generally a bit of a weird move).

Silvia would have made for an excellent protagonist, if the Shakespeare had chosen her as his heroine instead of the guys: happily in love, her relationship gets sabotaged at every turn, by her father and his choice of partner for her and even by her lover’s best friend. Finally her lover is banished and she has to go and rescue him, pursued by said former best friend.
I wish I had seen that play, even if the one I saw was entertaining.

Summarizing: The play itself is uneven, the production seemed set on matching it. Still fun.