Review: The Libertine, Cheltenham Playhouse (taking place until 5th October).

We invited local theatre enthusiast, Emmy Haye, to review the dress rehearsal of The Libertine at our intimate local theatre, the Cheltenham Playhouse.  This compelling  play is taking place nightly until the 5^th October.  A limited amount of tickets are available from £10 - £13 so you'll need to be quick if you want to experience it for yourself!

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On stage, anything can happen. Even gaining the sympathy for a man that’s anything but a gentleman. The Libertine is not for the easily offended or for faint hearted, but somehow Gregory Aston (Director), has made the perfect balance between the love and hatred of such a complex character.

Cheltenham Playhouse’s very own Earl of Rochester (played by Gregory Aston) has not only the complexity of a lost man, but the certainty that he must live every day like it’s his last. Compelling and gripping from Aston’s prologue, “You will not like me,” warns the likeable Gregory Aston as John Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester, in the opening moments of the play, as he sets out his stall for the bad behaviour that is going to follow.

Rochester was famous for being filthy: a willy-wagging rake, who died at 33, apparently from pox and drink. He also wrote some of the most urgent, distinctive poetry of the 17th century: sweetly versified, pungently phrased verse about premature ejaculation, impotence, the love of a young woman for an old man.

This could be an old-fashioned West End sex comedy – and no doubt one of the reasons it has turned up there is that sex sells. With a subtle modern twist incorporated into the plays music, bring the crude scenes into the twenty-first century with a classical twist from the grand piano and cello. (I must say, hearing the likes of My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Coldplay not only soothed my soul but brought true depth into the scenes without being distracting.) There’s a rambunctious pleasure to be had from easy laughs, the play also pursues a darker line of enquiry about the ambivalence of destructive behaviour and the true cost of it.

Outstanding costumes and set design helps bring life to this period piece.  It’s amazing to hear that this not only took the best part of three years to being together, but the sheer commitment between cast, crew and local business across the county to make this remarkable play come to life.

Stephen Jeffreys makes this cogent argument for the attraction of the theatre and puts it into the mouth of his scabrous hero, John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester in The Libertine. It is the most wholesome thing that gets there.

It’s a fantastic play, with a fantastic vision and cast that bring something new to the Cheltenham theatre scene, a real breath of fresh air.  

Purchase your tickets from the Cheltenham Playhouse Box Office.