The bells of Barchester Cathedral ring out and the stage is crowded with a company of diverse and legendary characters. Only, in this fine production by Auriol Smith, all these characters are portrayed with dazzling dexterity by William Fry and Sylvia Read. Bishop and Bishop’s wife, Archdeacon and Chaplain, Signora and widow – they are all there before us, changed in the twinkling of an eye, one to the other, and speaking in tones of authority, allure, anger, despair and duplicity. Not only do we believe in them, but we are instantly absorbed by the clash and cross-currents of the affairs, scandals and ambition in the Cathedral Close. We are absorbed by the machinations of Obadiah Slope and wait through the snakes and ladders of his fortune, to see him fall. We have in the end the illusion that we have witnessed a whole chronicle of events [including the disaster with the crippled Signora’s sofa] and known the intimate company of the clergy and the women attending [and in one case] marrying them.
Barchester Towers is a long if hugely entertaining novel, and it is a triumph that Bill and Sylvia have adapted it to the two hours’ traffic of the stage and for two players only. The adaptation loses nothing of Trollope’s wit and narrative power; the interventions of the author’s voice are most skilfully chosen. Especially when the Bishop, faced with an implacable wife, is advised to summon up his manhood. And when, at the beguiling end, Miss Thorne the matchmaker is a little put out by the precipitancy of her own success but she ascribed it all to the altered manners of the time.’
It is inevitable that in a company of more than fifteen, certain characters should stand out, particularly in contrast. A sharp-tongued and authoritative Mrs Proudie can become the alluring, if crippled and somewhat cynical, Signora, who could perhaps be seen as a sharper-edged Elizabeth Barrett, as she observes the antics of the others from her sofa. The humility and integrity of Septimus Harding is a world away from the oily machinations of Obadiah Slope, and the Bishop is wonderfully at a loss, especially when, sitting between them, he wishes that Mrs Proudie and Mr Slope would fight it out between them. Then there is a the powerful Archdeacon who is on the side of the angels, and ends the first part with a rousing exhortation to Mr Arabin as a successful adversary to Mr Slope.
As we revel in these various players in the drama of the Cathedral Close, we approach the wonderfully satisfying close. Though the Signora observes that there is no happiness in love except at the end of an English novel’ we come to the convergence of the twain, i.e. the close encounter between Eleanor, daughter to Mr Harding, and the Rev Francis Arabin, happily to be the new Dean.
This was an evening of sheer delight, brilliantly performed and adapted by William Fry and Sylvia Read. Sound and light perfectly enclosed them. We leave with the marvellous echo of many voices, still alive as the lights fade.
Barchester Towers
Diana Raymond