In what has been quite a momentous week I have been taken away from the cares of the world by a couple of theatrical outings.

On Tuesday I finally got to see THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY at the Olivier Theatre. I have been meaning to see this but Dawn's recent visit spurred me on to action. She is such a trailblazer.

I love a good Jacobean tragedy which 86s most of the cast by curtain fall and this one I had never seen before. It has had a strange past: written in 1606 it was attributed to Cyril Tourneur nearly 50 years later but more recently it has been re-attributed to Thomas Middleton and that is who the NT is going with. Amazingly it appears not to have been produced for over 300 years - possibly due to it's bleak content - until being revived during the 1960s. The play was inspired by HAMLET and it's revenge motif is certainly obvious but where as Hamlet had only Claudius in his sights with others becoming collateral damage, here Vendice is happy to see off any of the family.

It certainly shows a rotten society: A corrupt lecherous duke rules an Italian city with his second Duchess who he has recently married. The disfunctional family includes the duke's son, as perverse as the father who also has an illigitimate son who hates the Duke for his reduced state. The Duchess' three sons from a first marriage are no better, the two eldest are both desperate to rule and the younger is a swaggering rapist. When he rapes a nobleman's wife the Duke orders him imprisoned which angers his wife into starting an affair with his bastard son for revenge. How unlike the home life of our own dear Queen.

Above all the Duke is hated by Vendice whose betrothed was poisoned nine years earlier by the ruler when she refused his advances as well as ruining his dead father financially. Vendice is obsessed with thoughts of revenge, even going so far as keeping Gloriana's skull in his room. The chance comes when his more pragmatic courtier brother tells him the Duke's son has asked him to find someone with no morals to seduce a virgin for him. Vendice leaps at the chance and disguises himself as chav-like Piato. His pleasure is short-lived however - the Duke has set his sights on Vendice's young sister Castiza.

This sets the characters on a frantic, hurtling journey into the heart of darkness as plot and counter-plot crash into each other and leaves a trail of dead bodies in it's wake. The play features one of the most famous moments in the tragedy genre when the disguised Vendice traps his enemy The Duke who has asked him to find him a young virgin. He is lured to a darkened room where he kisses the face of the quiet demure girl and is gripped with pain. Vendice then reveals to him he has kissed a mask covering the poisoned skull of Gloriana.... and that's just before the interval!!

On the whole I enjoyed this production, it was fast-paced and the surprising black comedy hidden within the mordant text was excellently played but director Melly Still, like so many others, distrusted the audience's capacity to understand the text so the opening tableaux featured the three-roomed standing set revolving to thumping techno music while the cast cavorted and perved around & around the set showing us just *how* decadent the court was. It was all rather obvious and seemed to go on for ages. The climactic dance of death was also staged as a contemporary dance piece with them flying all over the place which again just seemed too obvious and disrupted the tension that had been built up till then.

The cast made the night worthwhile in particular Rory Kinnear as Vendice. Swiftly changing from the embittered Vendice to the oi-oi Jack The Lad of Piato, he dominated the evening and was the perfect central figure to hold the attention. Just one thing... why did he sound *exactly* like Simon Russell Beale?? I was half-convinced SRB was in the wings with a microphone! He was matched by a brace of excellent supporting performances - Barbara Flynn was great as Vendice's mother who shocks him when she gives in to Piato's bribery for her daughter, Elliott Cowan was nice and sleazy as the Duke's oldest son, Tom Andrews gave a great scene-stealing turn as the Duchess' scheming eldest son, Billy Carter had good fun as the Duke's aggrieved illegitimate son, Katherine Manners was effective in the always-difficult role of the virginal good girl, Ken Bones - making a belated debut at the NT - made a very nasty Duke and Jamie Parker was very good as Vendice's brother and partner in vengeance.

I suppose you could say that as Vendice plays a role to fulfil his destiny so did Kenneth Williams. I remember back in the 80s seeing an edition of GIVE US A CLUE where Williams was one of the guests. He was given a charade to do which his team didn't guess. When asked what he had mimed he said something like "Life Of The Party". Parky then corrected him saying it was something like "She's The Life Of A Party" and Williams launched a furious tirade at him. It was a disquieting moment - the happy smiley face of light entertainment turned into a glaring snarl. With the publication of The Kenneth Williams Diaries five years after his mysterious death this real face behind the comedy mask was revealed for all to see.

On Thursday, thanks to Dawn's entrepreneurial spirit, David Benson reprised his 1996 one-man show THINK NO EVIL OF US at the Vauxhall Tavern. The one-man show explores a tenuous link between the two performers. In 1975 the teenage Benson had a story accepted for the tv series Jackanory which was read by Kenneth Williams. The show is as much about the life-changing circumstances that year in Benson's life as about Williams. Although physically unlike the star, David Benson brings him to life with the swoops and honks of that astonishing voice and by adopting the Williams posture, tightly clenched and preening. The climactic scene of Williams terrorising a restaurant dinner party is a real tour-de-force.

Benson was captivating, handling what could have been a tricky crowd in a trickier venue with ease. It is a tribute to his stagecraft and performance that he can play a difficult scene such as one where his mother is taken away to a mental home and pitch it just right so that you could hear a pin drop in the Tavern.

I should add that these two potentially depressing shows were separated by a quick trip to Kingston, Jamaica via the Playhouse to see the still-excellent THE HARDER THEY COME. The production is due to close in about two weeks time so I urge you to see it if you haven't done so.

This is my fourth time seeing this amazing show and the cast are still giving 110% - amazing too as they had played a matinee in the afternoon.

It's a boss production y'know.