A Soldier In Every Son tells the story of the formation of the Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan following the death of Tezozomoc, the Tepanec king of Azcapotzalco, the usurpation of his preferred heir Tayahauh by his brother Maxtla, the assassination of Tenochtitlan king Chimalpopococa by his uncle Itzcoatl, the murder of Ixtlixochitl of Texcoco and the rise to preeminance of his long lost son Nezahualcoyot following his exile in Huexotzinco.
As you might have guessed, this new commission for the RSC by Luis Mario Moncado is, at best, completely incomprehensible. Basically, it’s about the Aztecs, but beyond that I’m struggling.
The central problem is that all of the characters have very similar (not to mention completely impossible to pronounce) names, come from tribes with very similar (not to mention completely impossible to pronounce) names and live in cities with very similar (not to mention completely impossible to pronounce) names. There are also a vast number of them meaning that there is quite a lot of doubling up for the cast.
As such, for much of the play it was not at all clear who was speaking, who they were speaking to or who they were speaking about. This is not ideal for drama.
It’s difficult to know quite how as a playwright you solve this problem (I understand that you can’t just change all these historical character’s names to Warwick and Henry just so a stupid English audience can remember them) but the comprehensibility of the plot is not a challenge which as a playwright you can afford to ignore: that it has been here leaves a production which is impossible to follow in dramatic terms without a detailed knowledge of ancient pre-Aztec history.
The new commission is part of the World Shakespeare Festival and is supposedly inspired by Shakespeare’s history plays. This conceit actually does kind of work, and at times it does feel like something of an homage to Shakespeare: there’s a bit of Henry IV young king coming-of-age, plenty of Richard III scheming, a bit of Macbeth ghost and guilt, lots of Henry VI dynastic infighting. No comedies as far as I could tell, although everyone does have almost exactly the same bloody name so I suppose that’s quite Twelfth Night or Comedy of Errors.
The production values are very RSC, with elaborate vaguely slow-mo sword fighting and the occasional (and thankfully brief) song/dance. The costumes are impressive and are actually one of the most sensible parts of the play as they are helpfully colour coded to tell you which tribe the character is from: the Aztecs had the best outfits, their distinguishing features being red body paint and codpieces made of bullets. Badass.
This is technically a joint production of the RSC and Compania Nacional De Teatro De Mexico. For the most part the cast is made up of Shakespeare stalwarts, most notably: Alex Waldmann as the prince who really liked having sex with the slave girl and got murdered in the first act by the green people but then came back to play his son who joined with the red people to fight the green people; and Brian Ferguson as the guy who was scheming a lot to be in charge of the red people but murdered the red king when he was at the green king’s palace, after the green king had killed his brother. In addition, there are a few transatlantic transfers from the Mexican company, including a few performances which – while I’m sure are superb in Spanish – left something to be desired when translated into English.
We splashed out on a programme at the interval which helped a bit with understanding what the hell was going on. Things did pick up a little in the second half, where the plot becomes primarily about Brian Ferguson going all Richard III – but for the first clear plot or character to emerge only two hours in is really too little too late.
This is one of the plays I was most excited about this year (so excited we went to Stratford, no less) but it misses the mark completely. It is overlong rather than epic and the performances are uneven; but these problems could be forgiven if the were a coherent (or at least understandable) story behind it. Sadly not.
(P.S. This was a preview)
Phew! It wasn’t just me who was in the dark. I emerged from Friday night’s performance in a state of total befuddlement. I had not a clue what was going on throughout the course of the show. (I didn’t buy a programme – I feel I should be able to understand what’s going on without having to stump up an extra load of dosh for a crib sheet. ) Unless there are some massive re-writes before press night, this is set to be an RSC turkey to rival the legend that is Carrie – the Musical – I was there.
Like the reviewer we came to Stratford just to see this production.I coundn`t believe how bad it was.The final straw was when the leader of the red team suddenly said “I can`t remember my next line .Anyone here able to help me.Anyone back stage able you help me”Since no one helped he said o.k. I`ll make it up.The accents were a put off.The first leader of the Blue team sounded like Ant or Dec.The first leader of the gold team had a thick Scottish accent,and the leader of the Red team sounded like Jazzer from the Archers.Totally different from the Mexican actors.We didn`t leave at the interval like many because we couldn`t believe what we were seeing.
It is worth pointing out that the show is still in previews and that the odd technical slip up or prompt is to be expected and entirely forgivable.
We went on the 29th.July opening night.If it was in preview we weren`t told
The first week of a performance is always in preview, until Press Night. Press Night for the show was last night (5/7/12) as the reviews came out today.
well when you buy the tickets and you see opening night next to a later date that tends to mean it is a preview.
yes
I went with a friend yesterday – they’ve had time to sort out the problems by now. As it was 3rd part of histories trilogy – King John, Richard 111 we thought we’d be seeing something like Peter Shaffer’s ‘Royal Hunt of the Sun’. What a disappointment. I agree with the reviewer above. We got the programme before the play so had some idea of the different tribes. Thank goodness for the colour coded costumes! I felt sorry for the actors having to deal with a pretty Incomprehensible script, little opportunity for characterisation, a lot of ranting and little light & shade. It left me not caring who got killed or won or lost! The characters were interchangeable! This wasn’t just because of the difficult names. I liked the dancing & music. What is this latest trend for actors having their regional accents which don’t tally with the accents of the people they have been supposedly brought up with? We had Welsh, Brummie and Scottish at untelated times. We tolerated – just about – Duke of Buckingham in Stratford’s recent Richard 111 having a Scottish accent (Why?) but here was the same actor again with his Scottish accent – as an Aztec leader – or was it that other tribe? – or did he play 2 warriors? When no-one else has a Scottish accent – it really grates – and adds to the unintended I’m sure – muddle of the production! We stayed till the end but several people in front of us left at the interval. The actors showed such energy it was a pity they could not really salvage the play.
This is the worst play I’ve ever seen produced under the auspices of the RSC. They should be ashamed. I had a lively group of forty Swiss students, who had enjoyed the brilliant Julius Caesar, and who now were polite about this catastrophe. Even on our night, two actors still dried and improvised their lines, more of them already knew it was a disaster, and did not try to redemm it. Nice frocks though.