Staging a masterpiece - the RSC's Middlemarch
Middlemarch (Parts 1 and 2) by Nina Raine from the novel by George Eliot, at the RSC Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon until January 16 2027. Directed by Jeremy Herrin.
Review by Peter Walters.
It is George Eliot herself who raises the curtain on the tangled and teeming world of Middlemarch.
Candle-lit and with purposeful stride, the novelist leads the cast on to the stage to begin a two-part, five-hour examination of her formidable novel. And as narrator she's there, on stage or hovering just off it, the entire time, gently manipulating characters, drawing out the humour in their predicaments, steering plotlines in the right direction.
It's a device that works well, giving Nina Raine's new production a clarity that the sheer weight of words might not otherwise have offered us. And as the novelist, Amanda Root delivers a pitch-perfect performance that never becomes intrusive.
In George Eliot's own words, Middlemarch is a world of 'small, social connections' populated by the sort of folk who live hidden lives and rest in unvisited tombs. Their tortuous family relationships and petty squabbles, invariably over money, do not at first sight appear to promise great drama. Yet there is a timeless and engaging truth to their struggles to survive and prosper in an age of bewildering change and in a world where reform is rapidly becoming a byword.
Not everything in this admirably uncluttered production strikes quite the right note. As Dorothea Brooke, Eliot's central character, Nia Towle seems to lack the intellectual heft that would make her keen to marry the arid old scholar like Casaubon, a man who describes himself as an 'old ghost'. And the game of goodbye or not goodbye she later plays with Rory Alexander's Will Ladislaw verges on the tedious.
But there's much more humour in the story than you might imagine and there are some strong performances, notably from John Hodginson as the towering banker, and trembling villain, Nicholas Bulstrode, also doubling up as the showman auctioneer Borththrop Trumbull, focal point of a lively scene that cleverly draws the audience into the action. Most of the cast take on at least two characters and move from one to another seamlessly.
To get the most out of five hours spent in the company of such a monumental work, regarded by some as the greatest novel in the English language, it probably helps to be a George Eliot groupie. But you don't have to be.
For tickets and further information: https://www.rsc.org.uk/middlemarch
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