The Libertine (2007)
Directed by Bob Callender
Performances: Tuesday 15th – Saturday 19th May 2007, Prompt Corner
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Reminiscences and Anecdotes
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Reviews
JOHN Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester, wrote many bawdy satires during his short lifetime in the late 1600s, and was the model for the foppish title character in George Etherege's Restoration comedy The Man of Mode, writes Mark Campbell.
The Libertine, a 1994 play by Stephen Jefferys, performed recently at the South London Theatre in West Norwood, attempted to reconstruct the life of this extravagant womaniser, raconteur and patron of the arts.
The result was a sometimes fascinating look at a circle of young, fashion-obsessed dandies who lived for pleasure while at the same time cocking a snook at their benefactor, King Charles II.
Judging by the play, Rochester was a deeply unpleasant man who was redeemed through his affair with then-famous actress Elizabeth Barry.
But even this newly discovered altruism couldn't save him from the ravages of alcoholism and syphilis.
Directed by Bob Callendar and staged in the theatre's small studio space, Prompt Corner, the large cast had clearly worked hard at maximising the impact of Jeffrey's script, some of it based directly on Rochester's writings.
But the decision to have the actors perform in rather tatty 'ordinary' dress, in truth a tatty collection of 1970s charity shop cast-offs, and virtually no props (apart from giant papier mâché phalluses) robbed the story of much of its drama and colour.
It was also much too long, with the second act introducing new, unnecessary plot developments just when the end seemed in sight.
Rob Clother played Rochester as a man fully aware of his genius, with Adam Bambrough's Sackville a gruff Northerner with an amusing line in plain speaking.
Matthew Davis made a flamboyantly garrulous Etheredge.
It was an intriguing idea to cast a black actor as the King, but although Chukwudi Onwere looked and acted the part, his Kenneth Williams-style upper class accent seemed wildly overplayed.
The most engaging performances came from the two female leads.
Liz Chambers as Elizabeth Barry was excellent, while the stolid resilience of Juliet Holden as Rochester's embittered wife Elizabeth Malet formed the calm centre around which everything else revolved.
