Christopher Gray on a murderous tale rife with fun

The Royal Shakespeare Company has another winner in its ‘Roaring Girls’ season at the Swan Theatre with director Polly Findlay’s modern-dress take on Arden of Faversham.

The play is based on a true story of a Kent man’s murder by his two-timing wife. It is from the pen of that prolific Tudor playwright, Anonymous. But since its suggested authors do include both William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, as well as the lesser-known Thomas Kyd, it seems odd that the text is not discussed in the programme.

The success of the production owes a good deal to the bravura performance of Sharon Small as the adulterous Alice. Gleefully lecherous in the presence of her lover Mosby, (Keir Charles), she is artful to an extreme in pulling the wool over the eyes of her husband Arden (Ian Redford), to the extent that his suspicions evaporate under the sheer force of her declarations of loyalty.

These contrast hilariously with what is really going on as she recruits potential murderers to bump him off. Arden’s servant Michael (Ian Bonar) is the first, persuaded to the task with the promise of the hand of Mosby’s sister Susan (Elspeth Brodie). In another local, Clarke (Christopher Middleton) is a man with a very handy skill as a poisoner. But the action ratchets up when Greene (Tom Padley), a tenant dispossessed by Arden, hires a pair of London roughs to do away with him. That the victim shows an uncanny knack of survival becomes increasingly funny as Shakebag (Tony Jayawardena) and Black Will (Jay Simpson) struggle to kill him.

Arden’s source of wealth, incidentally, is seen to be from the manufacture of gold-coloured toy cats, complete with waving paws. Displays of these kitsch items are a feature of Merle Hensel’s happy designs, with what can only be described as a feline explosion at one point.

Arden of Faversham
Swan Theatre, Stratford
Until October 2
Tickets: 0844 800 1100