Antonio’s Revenge
★★☆☆☆ Unfathomable
C alto (Venue 40): Wed 31 Jul– Sat 24 Aug 2024
Review by Hugh Simpson
Antonio’s Revenge is a definite oddity, not made any less strange by its staging by Edinburgh/New Zealand company Half Trick Theatre at C alto on even dates of the Fringe only.
John Marston’s revenge tragedy from around 1600 features young Antonio, who is informed by the ghost of his father that he was murdered by the man who is now going to marry his mother, and that Antonio should seek revenge.
Juliet Gentle and Courtney Bassett. Pic: Eliza Roberts
This may sound familiar, as it is thought that Shakespeare and Marston may have been working from the same lost source; in truth, this overblown melodrama resembles Hamlet as much as Mrs Brown’s Boys does Mother Courage and her Children.
Learned opinion now holds that Marston meant that the play was intended as a satire on the whole genre of the revenge tragedy – something that is supported by its status as a sequel to an earlier comedy and its originally being performed by one of those very troupes of boy players criticised in Hamlet.
Half Trick do lean into this theory with some of the excesses here; the first 30 seconds features a poisoning, a stabbing and strobe lighting, while later on the blood is literally spurting out over the audience. It isn’t all as fun as that probably makes it sound, however, and much of what happens in between is less sure of itself, with director Courtney Bassett wavering between seriousness and self-aware parody too frequently.
less than clear
Cut down to an hour, it makes even less sense than it might, with characters’ histories and motivations less than clear. Even if you were trying to follow the plot, the fact that three of the five-strong cast switch roles constantly without much explanation makes it even more difficult to work out.
Some of it works well; there are scenes between Bassett’s unfeasibly evil Piero (who really should have a moustache to twirl and rail tracks to tie people to) and Caden Scott’s Pandolpho, where the two performers spark off each other and it looks like some grandeur might be achieved.
Alex Medland and Amy Beth Waterston. Pic: Eliza Roberts.heic
Juliet Gentle tries hard as a naive Antonio, but the character’s thirst for revenge never convinces. Amy Beth Waterston and Alex Medland also give their various roles great commitment; it is not their fault that by the time you have worked out who they are, they are back to being someone else.
Scott’s fight direction and Rebecca Mahar’s intimacy direction do give a visual impact, but not everything else measures up. The music (from samwooddoowmas) often sounds like the introduction to an electronic piece that never starts, while James Jennifer Wright’s lighting varies from the hazily hypnotic to the frankly distracting.
gore-fest
As a late-night gore-fest (in front of audiences who may well have taken a drink), this might have worked better with all guns blazing and a more overtly comic sensibility. As it is, it fails to present much of a case for bringing the play back from obscurity. File under ‘curiosity’.
Running time: One hour and 5 minutes (no interval)
C alto (studio), Friends Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, above Victoria St, EH1 2JL(Venue 40)
Wednesday 31 July – Saturday 24 August 2024
Even dates only: 10.30pm
Details and tickets at: Book here
Website: https://halftrick.com
Facebook: @HalfTrickTheatre
Instagram: @halftricktheatre
TikTok: @halftrick_theatre
Linktree: @halftrick
ENDS
