THEATRE REVIEWS

Pedro, The Great Pretender was written by Miguel Cervantes who was more or less contemporary to Shakespeare and commonly thought of as the first modern novelist. Unusually for a play of this period, it eschews a linear narrative in favour of thirteen episodes, each one an adventure from the life of Pedro, a cheeky rascal from the peasant class. He is devoted to being 'a pretender'; creating tall stories and going under different guises so he can help his lovesick friends and swindle pompous authority figures.

Directing for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Mike Alfreds and designer Rae Smith have tried to make this production as lively and intimate as possible by minimising the barriers between the actors and the spectators. In many ways, they achieve this. The lighting by Ben Ormerod illuminates the seating area as well as the stage, making the audience feel included in the action. Pedro (John Ramm) speaks directly to the audience, drawing them into the story. As if to underline the informality of the production, the actors unabashedly sip from Evian bottles in-between scenes, despite being in period Spanish costume.

When actors are not in a scene, they sit in wooden chairs at the back of the stage and watch the action along with the audience. These chairs are the sum total of the set design. They are placed in three rows across the width of the upstage area. Actors sit on one half of them and a group of musicians, who accompany the songs and dances in the show, sit on the other. The rest of the stage is bare. The aim is probably to make the design as simple as possible, so that nothing distracts the audience from forming a bond with the actors.

Initially the design does help to create a warm and intimate atmosphere. However, once there are more than a couple of actors in a scene, a major fault becomes apparent. There are so many chairs onstage to accommodate the actors and musicians, there is not enough stage space left to act in. The actors' blocking becomes jumbled, making the action confusing at times. In one episode, some gypsy girls perform a dance for the King. The performers are so squashed into the remaining space that their thoughtfully choreographed dance looks a total mess. One can only assume that this production was created with a larger performance space in mind.

John Ramm has no easy task playing Pedro; the part demands an actor with boundless energy and charm to keep the audience interested. Fortunately, Ramm has these qualities in spades. He also has great vocal control. Philip Osment's translation is entirely in rhyming couplets, but Ramm is not a slave to the rhyme and rhythm of the text. His part is a little wordy, but he knows to vary the tempo and modulate his voice to keep his lines interesting. By the end of the play, Ramm's character realises that, as a great pretender, his natural career path is to become an actor. He ponders the characteristics a good actor must have and says, 'in speech he can't be grandiose or affected in his gesture. He must have studied playfulness'. John Ramm follows these rules very well. His performance was unpretentious and rough-round-the-edges, giving it a quality of vitality.

Sadly, most of his fellow actors did not obey those rules, but instead made a meal out of every line. Their performances were incredibly grandiose and affected. The Shakespearean line, 'a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage', seems an apt description of many of the performers. The playwright David Mamet wrote a book on acting called True and False. In it, he advises that it is often better to simply say your line and just get on with it. Many of the actors in this company would benefit from reading that book.

Pedro, The Great Pretender is one of Miguel Cervantes's neglected plays. It was never performed in his own lifetime. After watching this production, it becomes apparent why it has been forgotten, it simply hasn't aged very well. A comedy that features Kings, shepherds and gypsies does not have many obvious modern parallels. Rather than keeping the action varied and interesting, the play's episodic structure only served to make the play feel choppy and lacking in cohesion. A dynamic production with lots of physical action might have tackled this problem. However, no such dynamism was visible in the RSC's production. Almost the opposite in fact, the company seemed to faff around unnecessarily between episodes, making the evening drag further. Most of the plot strands remain unresolved by the end of the play. As one left the theatre, one couldn't help but wonder what it was all about. © RW

“Pedro the Great Pretender” is at the Playhouse Theatre, London from the 14th February to the 12th March, 2005.

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