Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s intricately plotted comedy centres around the pernicious effects of gossip, which almost destroys a marriage, a love affair and a young man’s chances of inheriting a fortune. A hit from its opening night on 8 May 1777, it was praised by an early biographer for its avoidance of caricature, its “natural and striking situations” and its successful union of refinement with simplicity. These are not qualities on show in Tinuke Craig’s striking new production. Here, all is exaggeration.
Designer Alex Lowde drenches set and costumes in a saturated, bubble-gum pink, offset by touches of black; frocks and suits mishmash 18th-century styles with a dash of Vivienne Westwood sass. The world presented is fantastical, as are the characters who inhabit it. Only Geoffrey Streatfeild’s Sir Peter Teazle and Tara Tijani’s Lady Teazle are given space to share moments of affective (and genuinely affecting) intimacy, and Wil Johnson’s Sir Oliver to communicate true feeling.
