After Brexit, UK productions very rarely play in Italy, but Biennale theatre directors Gianni Forte and Stefano Ricci have made an exception. The final days of the Festival put center stage some major practitioners from different parts of the world: the Australian company, Back to Back Theatre, recipients of the Golden Lion Award, presented Food Court; Swiss dramatist and director Milo Rau brought Medea’s Children, while UK’s Tim Crouch performed his 2022 play, Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel. Crouch’s acclaimed Shakespeare inspired one-man plays – his earlier ones include I, Malvolio, I, Peaseblossom and I, Caliban, were written specifically for a younger audience, whereas Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel, drawing on King Lear, addresses an adult audience. On each occasion, this legendary gameshaper takes a minor character from Shakespeare and places them center stage.
Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel is a much bleaker play than others in the cycle, coming out of the writer’s experience of lockdown. In 2022, Crouch told Mark Fisher of The Scotsman that he was making connections between the Fool’s early departure from King Lear, and the fate of theatre during the Covid pandemic: “This is about leaving. It’s about the last two-and-a-half years, wondering what we’re doing, how we carry on.” Two years down the line, the themes are still deeply relevant and the issues unresolved.
Significantly, Crouch decides to address the audience in the role of the Fool, an outsider and indubitably the wisest character in Shakespeare’s play. The Fool observes, listens and when he speaks, his words are often pearls of wisdom disguised by his acerbic humor and wit. Still this oddball exits Shakespeare’s play in Act three, scene 6, declaring there are no jokes left and leaving Lear alone to face his tragic destiny.
Standing on an almost bare stage, a small table at the back, holding a glass of water, for much of the time, Crouch, dressed in dark pants and a shirt, a far cry from the Fool’s 17th century attire, dons a virtual reality headset. This is a portal to perhaps one of those huge Victorian London theatres, complete with a magnificent chandelier and proscenium, where a production of Shakespeare’s tragedy is in progress. For audience members, the Fool proceeds to conjure up, through well-chosen words, the action of the play which he has just deserted.
This one-acter opens, with Crouch treating the still thorny question as to whether theatre can survive in our digital era. He waves a harsh, accusatory finger at a certain kind of theatre which depends on corporate sponsorship. Pointing at individual spectators, he bemoans the high ticket prices (65 pounds for a seat), the premium tickets on offer which only the rich can afford, the ridiculously expensive pre-dinner theatre menus, enticing food lovers to see a play. But then a quick mention of an usherette, doing her job for an absolute pittance, pinpoints the other side of the coin: the hundreds of workers in the theatre industry who are poorly paid.
Once this arraignment ceases, the atmosphere and place abruptly change as Crouch\Fool enters the heath, inviting us to empathize with the desolation of the place and the loneliness he is feeling, amidst the nettles and briars. The play assumes tragic overtones, as the Fool prompts us to imagine in our mind’s eye, Gloucester’s horrific blinding from the Fool’s perspective. But abruptly he grows angry, “We’re fucking a desiccated corpse …” He is forced to admit he can’t go on: “I can’t do this anymore, I leave the action.”
The play struck me as Crouch’s bleakest so far, an invitation to his audience, to view the world of King Lear, a world, whose cruelty and lack of morality seem so close to ours, not through the eyes of royalty, nobility or the hundred knights mentioned in the play, but of a person, who finds himself on the margins. Faced with the barbarity of his superiors, having done his best to make his beloved Nuncle Lear see reason, the Fool chooses to abandon ship, never to return.
Co-directors: Karl James and Andy Smith. Soundtrack: Pippa Murphy.
This post was written by the author in their personal capacity.The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of The Theatre Times, their staff or collaborators.
This post was written by Margaret Rose.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.
