The Rape Of Lucrece

The Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon

2/5

“NEVER trust the artist, trust the tale,” said DH Lawrence, and this is never more true than in the business of storytelling on stage. 

In this revival of Camille O’Sullivan’s one-woman show, she retells, performs and sings The Rape Of Lucrece, Shakespeare’s long poem of lust, rape and politics. 

Yet I doubt whether many of the very enthusiastic audience, especially those unfamiliar with the work, would have come away with much more than an appreciation of the skeleton narrative of the classic tale of Tarquin, son of the last king of ancient Rome, whose rape of fellow aristocrat’s wife Lucrece led to the establishment of the Roman republic.

Camille O’Sullivan has a striking presence, reputation and talent but only occasionally did the verse or her singing, beset by discomforting hoarseness, survive her frequent moments of high passion, unnecessarily amplified to eardrum-perforating levels.

There are compensatory quieter moments in this 80-minute show when she lets the poem speak with its own voice, as in the exquisite lament of Lucrece’s father, surveying the body of his ravished daughter who had taken the only “honourable” and suicidal course.

“If in the child the father’s image lies, where shall I live now Lucrece is unliv’d” is a moving reminder that the music in such poetry needs no orchestration. 

Runs until July 4. Box office 0844 800-1110.

GORDON PARSONS