On 22nd March, at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, I saw 'The Knight Of The Burning Pestle' by Francis Beaumont, directed by Adele Thomas, a production I found interesting in comparison with 'Much Ado About Nothing' which I saw on 3rd May at Shakespeare's Globe, directed by Max Webster. Two actors who struck me particularly were Matthew Needham as Rafe and Hannah McPake Mistress Merrythought in 'Pestle', and Emma Pallant as Beatrice and Simon Bubb as Benedick in 'Much Ado'.
Matthew Needham interpreted the character of Rafe to be a timid, guileless young man, uttering a barely audible 'peace, mistress', when trying to quieten the citizen's wife, hesitantly touching her shoulder but quickly retreating. We, as an audience, instantly understood his low status. This contrasted with McPake's Mistress Merrythought, who came across as a proud, vain and rude woman, who I found instantly hilarious but dislikable. When she refused to bless her son Jasper she swung her arms around fancifully, without much direction, showing her to be full of hot air. Pallant's Beatrice was instantly assertive, spending much of the first scene stage left, away from Leonato. She is not moody, however, but fiercely independent, lowering her pitch on 'I know you of old', making the tone more serious, informing he audience that she has depth. Bubb's Benedick was unconvincingly brash, as if he was using his comedy as a front, as can be seen when he is taken aback by Beatrice, before physically composing himself, smiling, speaking his first line.
All styles of acting were naturalistic, although somewhat stylised so as to achieve comic effect. When Rafe is brought onto the stage in the prologue, his arms hang limply and straight at his sides and his wide eyes dart nervously about stupidly. The audience all laughed audibly, finding it humorous that one so unprepared had found himself in that situation. Michael Billington made reference to 'Needham's guileless Rafe' in the Guardian, which was a very apt word choice. Merrythought's physicality was equally odd, but more confident, such as when talking to Michael she would turn direction mid-speech and swoop across the stage with apparent purpose, which I found a particularly amusing aspect of the play. This corresponds with Billington's reference to her performance as 'boisterous', which is true, though I might have chosen a less aggressive word. Pallant's physicality was stern; she would step heavily across the stage, evidently with resolve, something which would excite the audience, expecting a confrontation. Bubb was much more reserved, tending to stand further upstage, and making less sudden movements, often moving his arms before his legs in hesitant gestures.
In Rafe's stilted heroic monologue, Needham achieved a staccato effect, adding ridiculous emphasis to the rhymes in the couplets to a comic effect for the audience: this showed him to be an inexperienced actor, a difficult role for an actor to play. He also characterised his social low-standing by his omission of 't' in many words, and pronouncing 'th' as 'f'. Dominic Cavendish in the Telegraph described this as a 'have-a-go knight errant', which I found observant. By the time of his blank verse he has come to grips with acting somewhat more, lowering his pitch to a growl on 'my trusty dwarf', raising it on 'distressed damsels'. He also regulated his tempo, giving enough time for complex sentences to be understood. Mistress Merrythought used her voice often to comic effect, such as when she put emphasis on 'Michael' each time, softening her voice to a sickly doting, exaggerating her preference for this son. When she says 'I have lost my money in this forest', she raised her pitch to comic proportions, clenching her fists, her voice breaking somewhat with the frustration, something I found indicative of her character.
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