Review: ShakeSoc presents All’s Well That Ends Well

All’s Well That Ends Well has a reputation as one of Shakespeare’s problem plays, notorious for its participation in tropes of both comedy and tragedy, giving rise to challenges in its representation to any modern adapter. But these challenges were undoubtedly risen to by ShakeSoc; their production does a phenomenal job of reconciling the conflicting elements of the piece, managing the ambiguous motives of its characters and their underhanded machinations to present an engaging performance with an ultimately satisfying conclusion.

What made this possible was the high quality acting from all those on stage. There were no weak links, from the lead roles of Bertram (Nadia Dawber) and Helena (Lilith Brewer) to those performing as secondary characters. The commitment from all the actors to maintaining their parts created a compelling story capable of drawing the audience in. This meant that the Shakespearean language, which can sometimes be difficult to follow, was consistently coherent and engaging.

The commitment from all the actors to maintaining their parts created a compelling story capable of drawing the audience in.

There were only a few moments when this wasn’t the case, generally when a supposedly secondary character was doing something distractingly funny in the background and stealing the show. The most frequent culprit for this was Lilith Wozniak as Parolles, impeccably dressed for the part and fully embodying the type of the obnoxious braggart, complete with excessively male-stereotyped behaviour and confident interaction with the audience. It was wonderfully done, and was perfect during the scenes where this was meant to be the focus of attention, but did occasionally come at the expense of more serious speeches.

Parolles was one example of the genderblind casting that was the approach for this performance, with notable examples also including Nadia Dawber’s casting as the male romantic lead. It’s difficult to comment on how this changed the production, as all that can really be said is that it definitely worked. It quickly faded into the background and became entirely non-obtrusive. More noticeable was the clever inclusion of the live keyboard music provided by Jonah Trenouth. It was an unexpected delight, and greatly added to the varied emotional ambience of each scene, precisely timed to complement the speech and behaviour of those on stage.

The music was an unexpected delight, and greatly added to the varied emotional ambience of each scene.

This was a fantastic production of one of Shakespeare’s trickier plays. The cast and crew demonstrated an absolute control over the narrative they built up, pulling the audience further and further into the complicated world where it may be that All’s Well That End’s Well, but the audience is kept in constant suspense as to a how a happy ending can be reached and tragedy averted right until the final scene; I’m fully looking forward to seeing whatever they stage next!