Review: Revel's World of Shakespeare

Don't miss this one-man show. Take the day off work if you have to

 First published on 5 Mar 2013. Updated on 6 Mar 2013.

Time Out Magazine of London, Beijing Edition says... 

For audiences, one-man shows can be dangerous. While a good actor transforms the intimacy into sheer, unadulterated power, a bad performer leaves us trapped like rats – nowhere to look, nowhere to hide. However, Revel’s World of Shakespeare is what one-man shows should be, shattering such mundane terms as ‘excellent’, ‘powerful’ and ‘magnificent’. It is comedy and tragedy, it is laughter through tears, it is dramatic craft the way Thespis intended – in short, it is the perfect piece of theatre, and it is returning to Beijing.

Revel chronicles American writer/actor/director Joseph Graves’ own experiences at London’s Chelsea School for Boys under the tutelage of Clive T Revel, a tyrannical, alcoholic professor who saw Shakespeare as a religion (if not a cult), pressing his young charges into terrified service.

But as the boys memorise soliloquies at metaphorical gunpoint, the real tragedy unfolds. During a drunken rant, Revel confesses that his severely handicapped son was not in fact cursed since birth, but irreparably damaged by his inebriated parents choosing one fatal night to drive home. Besides crippling guilt, Revel’s anguish stems from knowing his son will never recite the precious Shakespearean couplets that are all he has left.

The charismatic, high-octane Graves deftly toggles from overbearing drunk to frightened student, from agonised parent to wretched, wheelchair-bound son. Even his pastor father and his four-year-old daughter make appearances, and for audiences, it is the ride of a lifetime.

Revel has only one negative – a single viewing will haunt you for years. Take the day off of work, change your holiday plans, reschedule your wedding, but don’t miss this show.

Revel's World of Shakespeare is at the Penghao Theatre Thursday 7 to Sunday 10; Thursday 14 to Sunday 17. See event details.

Nancy Pellegrini, Time Out Magazine