Joe Harmston's production of T.S. Eliot's verse drama Murder in the Cathedral enthralled a capacity audience on Saturday night, January 31, at the Temple Church. Any argument that this eighty year-old verse drama might present today as an obsolete dramatic form was dispelled completely by this vibrant, riveting and fluent production.
Philip Franks brought an uncompromising contemporary authority to Archbishop Thomas Becket who has challenged his king, Henry 11, in the England of 1170, and is waiting the consequences of his action. His agonised spiritual journey is mirrored and embodied by the Chorus of the Women of Canterbury, here played mainly by members of the legal profession. If this particular Chorus seemed a little uncertain in the opening scenes it gathered in anguished intensity as the play progressed.
A rapt audience savoured every word of the remarkably chthonic and engaging poetic language as the play encompasses various political and religious viewpoints with a startlingly playful energy. The playfulness is there in the recycling of imagery from earlier work but making this imagery new and potent in a different setting. It is there is the clever astute tripartite structure, even in the deeply moving Christmas sermon delivered here from a looming illuminated pulpit in almost complete darkness. It is there in the final section of the play where the knights justify their murderous deed in the humorous, throwaway terms of celebrity-speak and darkly reminiscent of the language of the Nuremberg trials.
This is a great play and should be performed more often. An excellent cast responded beautifully to the nuances and subtleties of Harmston's direction. Atmospheric lighting by John Harris, an evocative sound score by Matthew Bugg and an elegant traverse set by Simon Scullion contributed to the mesmerising effect. Amazing to think that the National Theatre has not picked up on this or that any of the other subsided theatres are not celebrating any work of one of the twentieth century's greatest dramatists. A transfer to the West End perhaps for Harmston's timely and vivid production?
