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DRAMA
I n one of the evening’s funniest sequences, the youthful protagonist – fearful of drowning, unaccustomed to small talk, and having barely recovered from theatrical tantrums arising from the Lord Chamberlain’s decree that art be silenced – finds himself crossing the Thames by boat with matronly Grace, a woman who despises her name because it ‘makes me sound soft.’ She is confident her companion’s can scarcely be worse, but ironically his name is Pygge. Here, in a nutshell, are three of the great joys of Jessica Swale’s glorious new play for Dulwich College: its eye for character, ear for language and intelligent sinuosity in weaving together the ephemeral rhythms of river and theatre: metaphor and symbol of Edward Alleyn’s volatile London. As Swale’s provocative text informs us, satires are essentially ‘scourges, pustulant wounds poking fun, and all for the amusement of peasants and wantons’. Accordingly, a good many well-attired peasants, each lucky to get their hands on a ticket, had gathered as audience for this one extraordinary (and distinctly humid) night when Year 9 and 10 pupils from Dulwich and JAGS retraced the steps of their spiritual ancestors with a performance at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, only the second school performance at this prestigious venue. The Playhouse Apprentice is set backstage at The Rose, Alleyn’s Bankside theatre, at the death of the 16th century when the theatre was recovering from the dual blights of plague and puritanical censorship. John Pygge – our pint- pot hero, whose real identity as Alleyn’s page originates in the College’s manuscripts – is tasked with the formidable LEWDITY? SIR, THIS IS ART Middle School Play: The Playhouse Apprentice Richard Sutton Photographs by Nobby Clark REVIEW
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endeavour of persuading the Lord Chamberlain to re-open the playhouses by convincing him of the value and worth of theatre. As plucky Pygge points out, ‘No playhouse means no trade. And that’s not good for London.’ The playwright’s art lies in telling a story, wrought by the imagination; the players find the means. The ingenuity of this Middle School ensemble production – led charismatically by Jamie Kennedy and Izer Onadim – lay in its robustly light-hearted counterpoint of a Jonsonesque panorama of city life – the ‘colonies of beggars, tumblers, ape carriers’ – with a subtle, modern insight into historical heroism. The beautiful chamber space of this atmospheric Blackfriars playhouse was physically caught by a company of actors, musicians and designers wonderfully alive to the oral tradition and to principles of visual narration. Over the hour-long span, metadramatic conceits and political swaggering dissolved seamlessly into tender cameos and evocative choral antiphony – and gorgeous costumes (none finer than that of the Queen herself) guaranteed that this was more than just a feast for the listener. Underpinned by a resourceful percussion score and the plangent a cappella of Alleynian Blues , this exceptional collaboration sent us happily into the late evening glad to be at the heart of things, as Alleyn had been. Endnote . Pity the hapless mother in the Pit required to fend off a determined fish-merchant – selling the best haddock money could buy – just at the moment her son had his line. Unmatchable humour.
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