Adelaide Festival. Forced Entertainment (UK). Australian Premiere. Space Theatre. 9 Mar 2025

 

‘Tabletop’ Shakespeare? Do follies in the name of The Bard have no end?

Well, no. Four centuries have dimmed not his light, nor our appreciation of his oeuvre.

So, be gone ye glorious schools of classical enunciation, ye men in tights.

Here one hath a tin of curry powder and a sugar shaker amid a cast of thousands from the pantry shelf.

Iambic pentameter thou art too wordy. Thine stories may compact, and still the people will acclaim.

 

And so they are doing at the Adelaide Festival, thriving on the serious silliness of Tabletop Shakespeare.

Epic plays in 45 minutes with nothing more than a good narrator and a cleverly potted plot.

 

The pots being quite literal. Sometimes they are herbs. Sometimes sauces.

’Twas a sugar-shaker which starred as generous Timon of Athens and his faithful servant Flavius was played by a boot-shaped glass spirit measure. The poet and the artist were wee pots of baking additives. Lucillus appeared to be curry powder and a tube of wasabi was utterly typecast as the misanthrope, Apermantus. A can of Edgell peas played Lucullus while white plastic cups played senators. There are a lot of characters in Timon of Athens so it took quite a shopping list.

 

Two pantry shelves, densely stocked with condiments, sauces, and utensils, flank the stage in The Space, the narrator sitting centre alone at a cheap utilitarian table with the chosen “players” to hand on boxes at either side.

 

It was actor Robin Arthur who voiced the tale of Timon, steadily bringing the grocery characters to and fro, the narrative nicely time-lined with “the next morning” and “later in the garden” to give a good sense of time and place. Arthur was not beyond a little levity here and there and a wee bit of mime. Timon’s time in the dank cave was particularly amusing, albeit, of course, the play is a tragedy. 

 

The UK company is performing the entire works of Shakespeare in its Adelaide Festival season. This critic, however, was ticketed to only two, the second being The Two Gentemen of Verona.

’Twas always a lovely play and albeit suffering somewhat under a fierce air-conditioning flow, Claire Marshall brought it entertainingly to life amid a tabletop of what one might dare to describe as engrossing groceries. Who would have thought an audience could fall in love with a tiny nutmeg grater?  Well, it did. The weeny grater embodied Crab, the dog belonging to Launce, servant of Proteus who, in turn, is best friend to the “Gentleman” Valentine. While Crab has no lines, his reactive movements under the hand of Marshall are actually rather endearing.

 

One should sit near the front to identify precisely all the action figures. Their labels are small. However, the narratives are crystal clear and artfully abridged so one is hearing Shakespeare as stories well told, rather than the scripts of the great master.

 

Thus, distilled and performed, great plays arrive as simply delicious thespian whimsy.

Just charming.

 

Samela Harris

 

When: 9 to 16 Mar

Where: Space Theatre

Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au