All's Well That Ends Well, The Royal Exchange at Upper Campfield Market. Runs until October 19. IF the success of Shakespeare drama is its accessibility, the Royal Exchange hit its mark with the opening porduction of its autumn season last night.
The tale of unrequited love and the ensuing determined pursuit by the central character, Helena to get her man is one of the Shakespeare's least performed works.
The central themes of deception, and the tensions between laddishness and sisterhood strikes an immediate chord with modern audiences. It is Shakespeare'sZMen Behaving Badly.
As well as a strong cast, providing an engrosing entertainment, the show's success is undoubtedly down to the superb direction of Matthew Lloyd for whom no text is so sacred that it cannot be tampered with.
As well as transposing the action to the 1940s, Lloyd restructures the bard's work and re-orders the scenes in the middle of the play. One of the central scenes in which Parolles, exquisitely interpreted by Alistair Galbraith, is interogated is altered to provide an impressively comic climax.
Trevyn McDowell is superb as Helena, providing the driving force for the narrative and James Smith conveys a commanding charisma as the King of France. DAVE TOOMER
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