Lovers' Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald. The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, 410 Brockley Road, London SE4 until 1 February 2025, 4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.
Photo Credit: Paddy Gormley.
Lovers' Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald. The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, 410 Brockley Road, London SE4 until 1 February 2025,
4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.
“Gloriously dreadful.”
What delighted audiences in the past can come as something of a surprise. This tale of a son rescuing his mother from penury and discovering who his father was the hit the season in 1814 – a performance in Bath features in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. It was indeed produced there six times, Elizabeth Inchbald was an actress who started writing plays in 1779 after the death of her actor husband. She wrote19 comedies all of which were staged in London and was a leading light of the theatre and friend to the great players of the time. The Historia Theatre Company production of Lovers@ Vows directed by Kenneth Michaels is possibly the daftest and funniest thing to hit the Brockley Jack Studio theatre in all the years I have been going. It would be nice to say the Company founded by Kate Glover, who plays the woman wronged, had unearthed a forgotten masterpiece. Admittedly what is funny changes as time goes by – try listening to ITMA for a start, the show that kept the nation chortling during the war, now almost incomprehensible. When Shakespeare's clowns are funny it is all due to the actor and the director rather than the words and look at Benny Hill, laugh and wonder why. There are also admired plays of the past like the Aldwych farceswhich simply have not stood the test of time.
That said, however, the company go it with a will, director Michaels finds lots of things for them to do and Matthew Thomason as Frederick, the uptight, none too bright soldier hero, Kate Glover as his wronged mama Agatha, manage to keep their faces straight in face of all the odds. There is also butler who insists on speaking in rhyme – Gareth Pilkington revelling in the role – to the fury of his employer, Baron Wildenheim, the man who wronged Agatha, to emjoy and a funny double act as a couple of cottagers who take Agatha in from the cold by Richard Ward and Hilary Field. Emma Riches is aspirited hoyden as the Baron's daughter who thinks life as the wife of the local parson, also her tutor, is better than life in a castle with the man lined up for her by her father. The play may now seem preposterous but as entertainment this spirited staging is miles better than anything on television so go, enjoy and marvel at how gloriously dreadful it is. Inchbald was a major figure in English theatre in her day and times have changed but there is still life in the play even if not quite the life it had two hundred years ago.
Cast
Gareth Pilkington – Landlord, Verdun the Butler
Matthew Thomason – Frederick Friburg
Hilary Field – Cottager's wife
Richard Ward – Cottager
Edmund Digby Jones – Mr Anhalt
Kate Glover – Agatha Friburg
Harry Saks – Baron Wildenhaim
John Craggs – Count Cassel
Creatives
Director – Kenneth Michaeels
Sound Design – Samantha Parry
Lighting Design – Edmund Sutton
