Genre:

Theatre

Release Date:

Jun 2020

Sound Format:

Dolby Digital Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround

Ratio:

16:9 Anamorphic

Display:

NTSC

Subtitles:

English

Catalog Number:

OA1288D

Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida (Royal Shakespeare Company)

Gavin Fowler (Troilus); Amber James (Cressida); Adjoa Andoh (Ulysses); Theo Ogundipe (Ajax); Ewart James Walters (Priam); Andy Apollo (Achilles); Oliver Ford Davies (Pandorus);

"Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery: nothing else holds fashion"

Troilus and Cressida swear they will always be true to one another. But in the seventh year of the siege of Troy their innocence is tested, and exposed to the savage corrupting influence of war, with tragic consequences.

Virtuoso percussionist Evelyn Glennie collaborates with RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran to create a satirical futuristic vision of a world resounding with the rhythm of battle. broadcast live to cinemas from Shakespeare's home town.

Reviews

"Sweeping and confident production of Shakespeare's rarely performed tragedy." (The Evening Standard ★★★★)

"Gregory Doran's epic Mad Max post-apocalypse style Troilus and Cressida, with its swaggering yet flawed superheroes and ill-fated young lovers, opens with a clash of percussion instruments so loud, the night I saw it many of the audience jumped in their seats. The Scottish virtuoso percussionist Evelyn Glennie has composed her first ever theatre score and it is so phenomenally good you can feel every beat – be it a tank drum, vibraphone or an oil can, "the rhythm of war" is almost deafening at times. A hugely entertaining and engrossing three-hour watch" (WhatsOnStage)

"Two performances stand out. Adjoa Andoh memorably brings out the manipulative monstrosity behind Ulysses’s beguiling rhetoric, literally loading the dice when it comes to the choice of a Greek champion to fight Hector. Oliver Ford Davies is a classic Pandarus, brimming over with senile prurience so that even a line such as “I’ll go get a fire” gains a lurking suggestiveness. The central lovers are also well played, with Amber James’s spryly intelligent Cressida provoked beyond endurance by the naive insistence of Gavin Fowler’s Troilus on her fidelity." (The Guardian ★★★)

Extra features

Sounds of War: New Music for the Play; Cast Interviews; Director's Commentary; Cast Gallery