King's Theatre,
Edinburgh
Four stars
As rom-coms go, Howard
Brenton's reimagining of the love affair between twelfth century
French philosopher Peter Abelard and his teenage student and nun
Heloise d'Argenteuil is cleverer than anything Richard Curtis has
ever written. Yet, as the play's title indicates since it was changed
from the loftier In Extremis when first seen at Shakespeare's Globe
in 2006, despite the prevalence of dialectical and theological
arguments between Abelard, Heloise and their pious nemesis, Bernard
of Clairvaux, a rom-com is exactly what Brenton has produced.
Both Abelard and
Heloise are a pair of precocious, constantly questioning firebrand's
in John Dove's restaging of his original production for English
Touring Theatre. It's as if they are living embodiments of the trees
of knowledge that flank the action as the couple come together in
secret. While the anti-establishment ideas of both are indulged
before they meet, their coupling as a pair of pleasure-seeking
sensualists who can't keep their hands off each other proves to be an
incendiary act too far. Heloise may show a progressive sense of
self-determination that looks positively counter-cultural, but in the
end cutting the relationship off in its prime is the only option for
her and Abelard's enemies.
For all the play's
seriousness, there's an irreverent swagger about David Sturzager and
Jo Herbert's central performances that carries throughout Brenton's
audaciously penned text. Sex, ideas and heretical thought, it seems,
are natural bedfellows here. When Heloise hands Bernard a copy of
Abelard's auto-biography, published “800 years in the future, in
English,” the libido-driven dance that follows suggests that the
sexual revolution, like the dialectical arguments contained within
Abelard's weighty tome, is still very much alive.
The Herald, March 20th 2014
ends
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