This is a calculated piece of event theatre. A solid, lucid production of Shakespeare’s play is transformed into a happening by the heavyweight presence and onstage chemistry of stars Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma, and by the misleading implication we’re taking part in something far cooler than a boring old play.
Simon Godwin’s sternly martial production opened in The Depot, a vast, hard-to-reach modern shed in suburban Liverpool this week. The path to it is lit with flaming torches; in the bar hung with fascistic banners, snatches of supernatural dialogue mix with light instrumental jazz; the audience is ushered into the cavernous auditorium via a wasteland where a burning car is guarded by dead-eyed soldiers. More soldiers surround the three-sided stage, as a wispy phrase from When You Wish Upon A Star plays on a xylophone.
