REVIEW: RASHOMON Grim, dramatic, exotic and truly marvellous (From Echo)

REVIEW: RASHOMON Grim, dramatic, exotic and truly marvellous

1:25pm Thursday 27th October 2011 in Leisure By Tom King

SHAKESPEARE didn’t write Rashomon, but may have wished that he had.

One of the great fables of the world, the story of the samurai, the bandit and the woman behind the veil covers all the great tumultuous subjects.

They include murder, sex, power, greed, the role of nature, and the contrasting frailty and goodness of man, all over-arched by one huge philosophical question, what is truth?

That’s one big chunk of dramatic meat packed into a short space of time.

Throw in the exotic setting, costumes and body language of 16th century Japan, and you get a perfect subject for Southend Shakespeare Company on one of their exploratory trips around world theatre.

Directors Peter Finlay and Mike Clements duly deliver a production scorching enough to send sales of spring water soaring at Westcliff’s Palace Theatre bar.

A samurai warrior lies dead, killed by the bandit Tajomaru, who also raped the great man’s young wife.

What, though, was the sequence of events that led to this horror?

The bandit, the wife, and the dead Samurai (speaking from Hell through a medium) all give utterly contrasting versions of the story.

As they speak, their version is played out on stage. When even the dead and the condemned seem to be telling lies, how can such things as truth and justice even exist?

Big quandaries like these can ruin an audience’s digestion. But it is easy to set aside the heavy stuff and just enjoy the great storytelling and wonderful characters of Rashomon.

In a fine cast, Andrew Sugden stands out as the arrogant, doomed samurai, an almost wordless part largly delivered via a bottomless repertoire of glares. A word, too, for Julie Carter as the medium, a part that could all too easily look ridiculous, but emerges as dark and very creepy.

Steve Pilley does fine work in another challenging part, convincingly projecting the spirit of Tojomaru, the lusty, bandit who turns out to possess an unexpected streak of poetry and whimsy.

Nowhere are there any blank spots in a marvellous production that alleviates the grimness of the main story with a surprising amount of comedy.

If you have a ticket for this production, don’t swap or flog it it for all the tea in Tokyo.

Rashomon Palace Theatre, Dixon Studio, London Road, Westcliff.

7.45pm 3pm, Saturday matinee 01702 351135