It’s 1613, James I is on the throne, the puritans are on the rise, Shakespeare has returned to Stratford-upon-Avon, and the poet’s daughter, Susanna (Emma Lowndes), is married to the well-respected doctor, John Hall (Jonathan Guy Lewis). Hall is more interested in his work and herb garden than his marriage bed, and Susanna is a passionate woman, who like her father is full of life and love. In local haberdasher, Rafe Smith (Philip Correia), himself locked in an unhappy marriage, she may have found someone to lavish it on. What she hasn’t bargained on is that her husband’s callow and cocky apprentice, Jack Lane (Matt Whitchurch), will start making public accusations about both her fidelity and her sexual health.
From an entry in the records of the ecclesiastical court at Worcester Cathedral, which cites Susanna winning a case against gentleman’s son, Lane, for slandering her, the late Peter Whelan spun a delicious fiction which explores the lies we tell ourselves, the truths we refuse to see and the accommodations that people make in their daily lives in order to get by.
This is a lovely, compassionate play full of old-fashioned virtues and it gets a production to match its filigree delicacy in James Dacre’s revival which is so beautifully designed by Jonathan Fensom that you can almost smell the herbs in the garden. The show lacks a certain ripeness and an erotic charge between Susanna and Rafe, but it’s finely acted by all, and far more than just a romance.
Indeed, in the gripping penultimate scene in the church court it seems to almost be looking forward to the Salem witch trials. This is a play by one theatrical poet about the daughter of another who seeks to bring that poetry into her life. A stirring evening that reminds that reality depends on perspective and sometimes fictions offer far greater truths than the facts.
- At Royal & Derngate, Northampton, until 27 February. Box office: 01604 624 811.
