Bawdy humour in a tale of two halves


CANTERBURY TALES - PART 1
Gielgud Theatre

GEOFFREY Chaucer was a rascally civil servant in the 14th century – a brilliant observer who helped to shape the development of modern English. The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) service him well in this new adaptation by Mike Paulton of Chaucer’s vulgar, ribald, bawdy and tender stories told by the 20 or so pilgrims to pass the time as they journey from Southwark’s Tabard Inn to St Thomas á Beckett’s shrine in Canterbury.
This is an England in transition and the Pilgrims represent the rulers, the church and those that work. In two parts it is an engrossing tapestry of contemporary life that unfolds.
In the first part (the running order can change in each performance) I saw The Knights, the Nun’s Priest, Prioress, and the Poor Clerk of Oxford with the Miller making their contributions.
A strong company held together by Chaucer (Mark Hadfield) has a linking narrative that held the audience in the palm of their hands. The Knight (Chris Saul), a very perfect gentlemen, is an authority figure but kindly. Prioress’s chilling description of an alleged ritualistic murder of a child – little Hugh of Lincoln – and the racism it ignited had a resonance.
The Poor Clerk of Oxford (Eaon Broni) a hungry and threadbare student is shown great kindness by the host of the Tabard (Barry McCarthy) in a beautiful and warm cameo.
The Miller’s Tale is a raucous romp with bare bums, farts, false bosoms, and vigorous copulation. Joshua Richard is as earthy as newly ploughed soil and every inch a rural speculator.
In such a wide-ranging company is it invidious to particularise but the Nun’s Priest Tale was a joy. All taking place in a chicken coop, Chauntecleer is a cockerel and his favourite hen Pertalot. They have a troubled discussion about a worrying dream he has had.
Chauntecleer quotes at length from many noted books on the significance of dreams. She tries to reassure him but the threat arrives in very real form in the person of a more than cunning fox.
He sounds like Basil Brush (Dylan Charles) and is represented by three puppets, manipulated by the actors. Clare Benedict, the highly articulate hen, holds the stage. She also plays the wife of Bath making promiscuity a state of the art. Mark Hadfield, as the cock, made it a puppet show for adults and there is a singing chorus of scratching hens to add to the ridiculous.
Chaucer wrote it in the last years of his life and it remains a monument not only to English humour and satire and to the broad humanity of the people.

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