The Revenger’s Tragedy

Published Thursday 5 June 2008 at 12:55 by Alistair Smith

In many ways, Mely Still’s revival of The Revenger’s Tragedy feels like a companion piece to last year’s NT staging of The Man of Mode.

As Nicholas Hytner did with that production, Still has employed a mixed period/modern approach to draw out the parallels between our era and the renaissance. Like him, she has put a similar emphasis on music and dance and, of course, she has Rory Kinnear in the titular role.

Again, the modernised staging - mixing leather nightclub sofas with renaissance religious relics and Caravaggio with projections of skulls - pays dividends, while the music, especially counter tenor Jake Arditi, proves a real highlight. Kinnear, though, who was superb as Fopling in the Man of Mode, is something of a disappointment.

While he excels at the comic aspects of Vindice, the titular revenger, and his alter-ego Piato, he rarely hints at the troubled soul which has driven him to such heightened levels of desperate revenge.

Because of this, the production struggles to rise above the superficial and macabre pleasures it offers - of violence, more violence, blood and gore.

And even they prove something of a let-down. While the Duke’s death, which ends the production’s first half on an almost operatic high, is brilliantly, wittily and bloodily staged, the second half’s murders could have done with a little more - well, blood and guts.

Still, the design by Ti Green and Still is impressive, providing a massive rotating set which moves the action from court to whispering back alley with ease, while the supporting cast put in some excellent turns - Elliot Cowan as the lecherous Lussurioso is of particular note. The Revenger’s Tragedy is part of the Travelex £10 scheme.