Some Shakespeare plays are like buses: they come along frequently and bunch up. Others, such as All’s Well That Ends Well, are rarely spotted. That’s a pity, because its themes of social mobility and sexual misconduct by men can make it seem startlingly modern.
When Helena (Ellora Torchia) cures the king of sickness, as a reward she asks for Bertram as a husband. One of Shakespeare’s less attractive creations, the snobbish, sulky Bertram (Will Merrick) is so appalled at marrying beneath him that he runs away to war. He tells Helena he will never accept her as his wife until she can get the ring from his finger and bear his child.
This is a play about deceit, self-deception and not seeing what’s under your nose. It’s dark stuff – and Caroline Byrne’s candlelit production is so gloomy that it is often hard to see what’s going on.
It’s an uneven evening: Martina Laird is uncomfortable as the Countess of Roussillon, who treats Helena as her daughter, but spot-on as another mother, the Widow, who joins forces with her own daughter and Helena to expose Bertram. There is also some misjudged physical comedy around the bed trick in which mismatched limbs farcically appear and disappear from slots in a curtain. But Theo Vidgen’s plaintive score ensures the emotional underpinning the story needs.
As Helena, Torchia offers a mix of sexual yearning and steely determination, and Imogen Doel is fabulous as the peacock Parolles, a coward masquerading as a hero. But the handheld candles often obstruct the cast from throwing any real light on their characters.
• At the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London, until 3 March. Box office: 020-7401 9919.
