Toronto Star, August 22, 2004
Rare King John on solid ground
By: Robert Crew
Little wonder that King John is among the least performed of all the plays in the Shakespearean canon.
It is clearly an early work, episodic and somewhat stiffly constructed with an abundance of formal, set scenes. The poetry does not have the power of the later plays; the psychological insights are less acute.
The production on now at the Tom Patterson Theatre tries hard to paper over some of the obvious cracks. It is fast moving, Santo Loquasto's multi-level grey steel set is flexible and helps add interest and variety and the cast includes some of the festival's very best.
It achieves a certain respectability without scaling any great heights.
Like many of Shakespeare's plays, King John keys on the issue of good government and the problems associated with royal succession.
The play sets up a situation of gritty political reality where things quickly begin to spiral out of control.
King John has a rival claimant to the throne in his brother's son Arthur. His claim is being pushed by his formidable and voluble mother, Constance and is backed by King Philip of France and the Duke of Austria.
A hastily arranged marriage seems to have settled the matter but the pope's legate, Cardinal Pandulph stirs up the issue by excommunicating John and demanding that the French make war on England.
Arthur is captured by the English and John gives orders that he is to be killed. This outrages the English barons who rise up in revolt and go over to the French side. The French invade and England's fate hangs in the balance.
It is a world of power politics, of shifting allegiances, of treachery and dishonour.
There are a mere handful of people in the play who are not ethically reprehensible, chiefly the illegitimate son of the previous king, Richard Lionheart, known to all as the Bastard.
The other character who emerges through a dark night of the soul is Hubert, the man told to murder Arthur but who ultimately finds himself unable to do the deed.
Stephen Ouimette is King John and like several characters in this play, he is a chameleon, shifting from Henry V, once-more-unto-the-breach-style war leader, to villain, to traitor who gives up his throne at the behest of Rome, to tragic failure.
Ouimette is able to give us a taste of all these aspects of John's character but is at his best as the king's world crumbles around him and his weaknesses become apparent.
Tom McCamus' Hubert is another character that evolves from scene to scene. McCamus plays Hubert's realization of his own humanity with utmost honesty and skill.
The most vibrant character in the whole play is that of the Bastard, played with irresistible relish by Jonathan Goad, He's a humourous, cheeky Bastard, who initially is out for all he can get before changing into the ultimate good guy who gets to deliver the most famous lines in the play, a patriotic affirmation of English independence delivered, somewhat strangely, to an almost empty stage.
There's accomplished work, too, from Martha Henry as Queen Eleanor and the young Aidan Shipley shows remarkable poise, not to mention talent, in the role of Arthur.
I also liked Bernard Hopkins' suitably unpleasant Cardinal Pandulph, an object lesson in how you can do a great deal with quiet yet skillful modulation of the voice. It was in stark and welcome contrast to moments of the scenery chewing elsewhere in this production.
The Patterson theatre is an intimate space and a couple of performances are simply too big.
Director Antoni Cimolino has made some good choices and some less happy ones. Among the latter would be the decision to set the play during the Victorian era, which is not a particularly illuminating move. The opposing armies may talk of being weighed down in armour but they look as if they are off for a picnic and some jolly boating beside Thames at Marlow.
Some of Cimolino's staging is effective, however. The battle scenes are quite chilling and the moment when the new married princess has to choose where her loyalties lie is rendered dramatically and movingly.
It's a fairly solid outing for a play that you won't catch too often.