Review - The Cries of Silent Men – 5th of June – Nottingham Castle (Hanby and Barrett)

For theatregoers, 9pm on a chilly June Sunday evening in the grounds of Nottingham Castle is unusual territory in all senses, but it was a good sized and well wrapped up audience who were in attendance for this production of Hanby and Barrett’s ‘The Cries of Silent Men’.  This play was originally developed as a ‘site specific’ piece of community theatre, designed to be performed outside, in a particular location, by people from that location and its surrounding communities, but had been transplanted to Nottingham Castle for the NEAT Festival. 

The Cries of Silent Men

The play deals with the events at nearby Beauvale Priory and the order of Monks who called it home, during the reformation of the mid to late 1530’s.  This turbulent period of English history saw Henry VIII, with the political and religious facilitation of Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer (another local man), split the English Protestant Church away from Catholic Rome.  These events were of immense political significance across Europe, but also cut to the heart of each devout Christian in England, who had to decide whether God’s anointed King (Henry) or God’s anointed Priest (the Pope) was his authority on Earth. 

Andy Barrett’s script did a terrific job of balancing the need for exposition with storytelling, of contrasting the affairs of state against personal religious conviction and of setting Cromwell’s worldly pragmatism against the monk’s sacred idealism.  The characters never felt like ciphers and the Angelic visions and the reoccurring symbolism of the roses and petals, helped to ground the monk’s religious convictions in a reality that made their piety understandable and plausible.  Finally some sly references to England’s laws being unjustly set by a European Potentiate showed how history can repeat itself and gave the play some contemporary resonances.

The cast, drawn from the people of the community around Beauvale Priory, handled the script confidently and well.  The language was, almost without exception, well spoken and audible, not always easy in an outdoors situation close to the city centre and despite the large cast of characters the audience were well able to follow what was happening.  Ian Baxter and Russell Waters playing monks the doubting Thomas Dookmer and the capable Richard Wakefield respectively, were particularly good.

The production also made the most of the castle grounds in its imaginative staging and direction.  A passage that saw the angel appear atop the castle wall, whilst we heard the wind rustling in the trees and chanting in Latin echoing up from the stone tunnel was particularly atmospheric and really did transport the audience to another time and place.  A later scene set on a more conventional stage, cleverly used a wooden frame first to place Henry VIII in a familiar portrait pose and then acted as first gallows and then scaffold for the bloody executions than end this tale.  Costumes, props and lighting all played their part in creating a seductive atmosphere.

This tremendous show, strong in all departments, was a wonderful example of what can be achieved by community theatre.  It showed how with the right material and creative direction, memorable productions can be staged in unique venues.  I hope that more established theatres follow this lead to create similarly ambitious new pieces.

(also available on LeftLion - http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/id/3708) 

David Millington

5^th June 2011

Nottingham