show-stealingly――『負けるが勝ち』のレビューより
18世紀のイングランドで流行した劇のジャンルに感傷喜劇(sentimental comedy)というものがあります。簡単に言えば感傷喜劇とは(簡略化しすぎて語弊があると思いますが)、「王政復古演劇が不道徳な劇だった、という批判から成り立った、説教じみた――観客を笑わせるよりも泣かせる――喜劇」というジャンルです。この感傷喜劇に対し、批判したのが今回上演された『負けるが勝ち』(She Stoops to Conquer)の作者オリヴァー・ゴールドスミス(Oliver Goldsmith)や『悪口学校』(School for Scandals)の執筆者、天才リチャード・ブリンズリー・シュリダン(Richard Brinsley Sheridan)です。喜志哲雄先生も著書『英米演劇入門』で論じられておりますが、批判という事実は、単純なものではなく、執筆者たちは感傷喜劇を批判しつつも、感傷喜劇の劇作術に妥協せざるを得ませんでした。
さて、劇史的なお話は置いといて『負けるが勝ち』(She Stoops to Conquer)は、とても人気のある劇で、何度も上演が繰り返されています。イングランドでは、やはり観光客の少ないこの時期にやることが多いようです。観に行きたかった、というのが本音ですね。ちょうど各新聞がレビューを書いています。今回は、地下鉄の駅などで配っている無料新聞Evening Standardを採り上げます。結構勉強になる単語が並んでいました。文中のshow-stealinglyは「劇の注目をかっさらう程の」という意味。音楽で言えばshow-stopperみたいなものです。(Othello)
She Stoops to Conquer, National (Olivier) - review
She Stoops To Conquer is almost 240 years old, but Oliver Goldsmith's tightly plotted play seems wonderfully youthful in this fizzy production.
Credit to Jamie Lloyd for his precise direction - and to a buoyant cast that includes Katherine Kelly, fresh from five years in Coronation Street.
Kelly plays Kate Hardcastle, the pert daughter of a rural eccentric. He has fixed for her to meet eligible fop Marlow (Harry Hadden-Paton) with a view to marriage. But Marlow is tongue-tied when polite women are around. "Simplicity bewitches me," he says, and he certainly becomes much more animated when carousing with people of humble origin.
Kate twigs that in order to win Marlow's affections she must pose as a barmaid. The gambit works because Marlow is, in any case, thoroughly confused about his location. Blundering around the countryside, he has been sent to what he thinks is an inn. But this is a bit of mischief by local joker Tony Lumpkin, and in fact it's the house of Mr Hardcastle (a note-perfect Steve Pemberton).
Cue a succession of ludicrous misunderstandings. The result is a comedy of errors, which is at the same time a satire that engages provocatively with questions of class and the power of delayed gratification.
It's joyous stuff - broad yet polished. There's lovely ensemble work, neat movement overseen by Ann Yee, a handsome set by Mark Thompson, and jaunty musical interludes by Ben and Max Ringham that cover the scene changes appealingly.
Kelly is wickedly assured, the sort of performer who can endow a simple smirk with resonance.
Hadden-Paton makes Marlow sumptuously funny while also suggesting his neurotic tendencies. John Heffernan reveals a gift for comedy as Marlow's friend Hastings, Cush Jumbo dazzles as the object of Hastings's affection, and David Fynn is deliciously robust as Tony Lumpkin.
Best of all is Sophie Thompson, who is show-stealingly good as Mrs Hardcastle, an occasionally ghastly yet all too human figure - farcically pretentious and easily duped. Her performance, finely tuned and generous, typifies this sublime account of a somewhat neglected 18th-century classic.
For those who can't make it to the National Theatre, She Stoops to Conquer will be broadcast live to more than 200 UK cinemas and another 600 worldwide on March 29.
