REVIEW: VENICE PRESERVED. RSC. STRATFORD

BACK to the future in Stratford as the RSC presents a 17th Century play in a science fiction, futuristic setting.

Imagine the mood and atmosphere of Blade Runner and you’ll get some idea of the opening, steamy and rain-sodden scene for Venice Preserved.

This dystopian thriller was written by Thomas Otway in 1682, three years before he died impoverished aged just 33.

But it’s been teleported into a mixture of the classic and sci-fi by director Prasanna Puwanarajah with more than a nod to cyberpunk and cinema.

Think of a time of political anxiety and uncertainty; of corruption, betrayal and revolution. Past, future or present? The play is based on a failed uprising in Venice at the turn of the 1600s.

Jaffeir – brilliantly played by Michael Grady-Hall – secretly marries senator’s daughter Belvidera but falls into the arms of a revolution before betraying it to help save Venice from destruction.

The music is hypnotic techno and the set, designed by James Cotterill, is neon-lit and set against a wall of computer graphics.

The marriage between restoration and futuristic is mesmerising as the tension rises and the laser-sharp rhetoric finds its target.

Cinema references abound – there are masks for the conspirators (V for Vendetta); the senators have cloaks and masks (Eyes Wide Shut) and the bad-guy Renault (the excellent Steve Nicolson) has a mullet and one eye (Snake Plissken in Escape From New York). And there are echoes of Shakespeare with Hamlet-like ghosts appearing and Jodie McNee’s powerful Belvidera descending to Orphelia-like despair.

The language and acting smoothly flow along with the canals in the Restoration Noir work that includes a kinky sex scene, a laser-secured prison cell and some heart-rending action.

Venice Preserved runs until September 7, 2019. Box Office: 01789 403493.