The Barber of Seville

By Robert Iles - 15th Feb 2006

Set on a modern day Costa Brava, Lee Hall's fast-paced adaptation of Beaumarchais' "The Barber of Seville" is a real romp of a play.

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais led a life as flamboyent as his name; watchmaker, inventor, musician, diplomat, litigant, secret agent, arms dealer and playwright. Originally conceived, and rejected, as a comic opera, The Barber of Seville eventually had its debut at the Comedie-Francais in 1775 and (after cutting a lot of the political rhetoric) it proved a great success - its indolent, insolent and intelligent central character a new, and at the time dangerous, way of portraying servants. If you've seen Rossini's opera you haven't yet met the original Figaro; clever yes, but not infallible and both lazy and manipulative. This original portrayal, Figaro the failing dramatist fighting back at an establishment that puts him down, has a lot of Beaumarchais own philosophy and life in it.

The barber of Seville is the servant to a rich, powerful and unpleasant man (Batholo) who has in his power a young and beautiful girl (Rosine) who he plans to marry. The even richer Count Almaviva falls in love with Rosine and the play revolves around Figaros plotting to help the count win the girl from under his employer's nose. In Lee Hall's adaptation this central story line remains but the play has, with the strange exception of some of the dialogue, the feel of a pure modern comedy. This is probably how it should be, the comedy elements of the original are still with us but the edge and danger of portraying servants and bright and cheeky left us generations ago! Mr Hall has actually produced a very wity piece, from the opening operatic aria in which the cast sing (very well) that you, the audience, are not to get the wrong idea because this is not an opera, to the closing song in which they try to find a suitable closer for the story, which comes to a sudden halt with the marriage of the lovers. Song is used regularly through the play to tell us everything from 'this is where in the original we move from act 1 to act 2 and introduce the plot device of a letter' to 'a brief background and history of Beaumarchais'.

Figaro (Paul M Meston), the most 3-D character, is played appropriately in the most realistic style. The Count (James Garnon), who also appears as a Newcastle tax inspector and priest, has terrific comedy timing and great versatility. Malcolm Rennie's Bartholo is a bit shouty but it suits the production style. Laura Rogers (Rosine) spends the entire play in little more than a bikini, which would be memorable enough but its really her effortless swings between dumb Essex blonde and diva that really impresses. Chris Larner plays the less than solubrious Bazille with the charm of a Peter Lawrie and Gil Cohen-Alloro (Lanky/Notary) and Adam Baxter (Perky/Alcade) fill in admirably, especially when called on to sing and play.

Set in the Hotel Seville, a half-built Spanish hotel (with usable swimming pool) the production moves easily between fantasy song numbers and reality (well, farce-like reality). The (designed by Anthony Macilwaine) set was, as I have come to expect of the Bristol Old Vic, utterly credible, appropriate, robust and usable - very clever. Direction (Julian Webber) was tight and the production was full of pace; which it has to be with this story as it wouldn;t do to have time to sit and think about it.

An excellent, light, comic night out.

Robert Iles