Review: All's Well That Ends Well, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford
Shakespeare's tale of a nobleman who is first ordered to marry a commoner and then tricked into consummation is little-studied in schools (probably because it opens with a bitter attack on virginity) and rarely performed.
Although Nancy Meckler's busy and imaginative production extracts as much as possible from the play, there's no denying that it's not one of Will's best.
The plot is unlikely and the main characters merit neither respect nor empathy. So while Joanna Horton and Alex Waldmann do fine work as the mismatched lovers Helena and Bertram, most of the applause goes to the lesser character Parolles, played by a star of the RSC's 2013 season, Jonathan Slinger.
Parolles is a terrific, multi-layered and very modern character. He poses as a hero on the battlefield, but when he is ambushed, blindfolded and threatened with execution by his own suspicious comrades as a joke, he eagerly betrays them all.
When the blindfold is removed, Parolles realises what he has done. But he rejoices for though he is exposed as a craven coward, he has saved his miserable skin and will live. For 400 years Parolles has posed the discomforting question for all would-be heroes.
In his position, who among us would not do the same? All's Well That Ends Well is at Stratford until September 26.
By Peter Rhodes
