A historical retelling with a striking twist, 55 Days
is a new play written by Howard Brenton and directed by Howard
Davis, featuring Mark Gatiss in the crucial role of King Charles I,
imprisoned and on trial for his life. It tells of the momentous
events leading to 30 January 1649, where the king, having been
effectively deposed by opponents in parliament led by Oliver
Cromwell, was put to death.
55 Days presents us with a compelling piece of theatre,
twisting from political manoeuvring to a thrilling second act
courtroom drama. The play has an immediacy that brings these events
from hundreds of years ago to stark life, the largely forgotten
past presented as recent instead of dusty. It is also a narrative
of huge contrasts throughout, in both its staging and
characterisation. Opening with the military purge of
parliament in December 1648, the play forsakes the deep historical
background that lead to this unprecedented moment, and instead
forces the audience to hit the ground running as it reveals the
competing characters of Cromwell and Charles I, the former
tormented by the political changes he is creating that remain in
place to this day, and the latter both a victim of those changes,
and his own arrogance.
The play carries a tremendous degree of thematic weight thanks
to its greatest conceit - the cast are dressed in near contemporary
clothes, be it clean cut suits or paramilitary uniform, with the
staging and props all giving the air of a 1950s setting, rather
than the 1600s. Typewriters are used to write legal papers, orange
leather sofas are lounged upon, and the set itself is bookended by
a white brick wall at one end, a huge chest of filing cabinets
against the other. The whole production design brings everything to
life with huge immediacy, the realisation being planted in the
audience exactly who the people who deposed and executed this
monarch were - Members of Parliament, with all the airs of plain
officialdom and civil service we are accustomed to. We're used to
this sort of contemporary conceit through numerous interpretations
of William Shakespeare's work, and indeed the play does carry the
whiff of The Bard's famous history plays in the presentation of its
narrative. But then, in the third scene, entering with a sedately
played game of bowls, comes Mark Gatiss as King Charles I. Dressed
in full period regalia - all elaborate lace and rich material, and
carrying a formal walking cane - he is in dramatic juxtaposition to
the besuited bureaucrats, making the thematic statement of the play
fully realised. Here is a man apart from the rest of the world,
elevated above them in his own eyes by God, in complete opposition
to all others but also by the close marked as a relic of times
past, and no match for the new processes his death brought. The
onward march of progress is thus dramatically and wordlessly
stated.
After the plotting of the first half of the play, where the
players bicker and arrange themselves how to proceed, and Charles
is shuttled between locations to languish in cells, the second half
transforms into a courtroom thriller. Arranged parallel to the
audience on both sides of the stage, events become hugely
involving, transplanting you from simple viewer to participant. If
you are lucky enough to have seats in the lower stalls, it feels as
though you are within that courtroom watching proceedings, the
projected jeers of the public echoing through the auditorium around
you. This indirect interaction is a remarkable feat, drawing you
directly into the action, and a superb example of the brilliant
sound design the play features.
Despite the large cast of excellent performances, the play is
predominantly a two hander between Mark Gatiss as Charles I and
Douglas Henshall as Oliver Cromwell, the contrasts and similarities
between the two men providing tremendous layers and complexities to
proceedings. While perhaps slightly ambiguous, and certainly a
great source of torment, Cromwell here believes his path has been
laid before him by God, that the rebellion he has unofficially come
to lead was dictated by divine intervention. Charles, as king, also
believes that his course is a holy one, and that God has chosen him
to rule. Effectively the beliefs of the two men are different sides
of the same coin, it's just that in the end Charles ends up face
down - quite literally. Howard Brenton's script sees a fictitious
meeting between the pair for the purposes of the narrative. In many
ways the play builds quite inexorably to this point, and when it
comes it certainly doesn't disappoint. Douglas strikingly plays the
desperate desire of Cromwell to avoid the seemingly inevitable
death of the king - he is the only character to intentionally
address Charles as 'Majesty' without reluctance, and the magnitude
of what he is drawn to do weighs heavily upon him. Up until the
last possible chance, he would try to spare the king to avoid
killing the man placed on the throne to rule by God's will - but
Charles, through his own belief, coupled with his arrogance,
intelligence and humour, doesn't let him. Also intrinsic to
Henshall's performance are the differences between his conviction
and the reluctance that Cromwell carries as a figurehead - he was
on the surface, after all, just a politician, but also one blessed
with a strong tactical mind that served him well both on the
battlefield and within the creation of these new laws that endure
to this day in Britain.
Despite any cosmetic similarities to his role in The
Recruiting Officer, Mark Gatiss' performance as Charles I
is far from anything else we have ever seen him play. Affecting a
Scottish accent, his portrayal brings facets of great power, poise
and eventual vulnerability. As with Cromwell, his supreme belief in
his position being ordained by God gives him great pathos, but it
also ends up being his own undoing thanks to those who view him
instead as a deposed tyrant. Charles plays by the rules he believes
in, and when challenged by a court formed by parliament - and his
subsequent failure to recognise that court - a simple change of
those rules by the lawmakers is all it needs to break him. Mark
invests many elements into the man, a palpable sense of anger
coupled with some striking humour, and most importantly hubris.
Hubris that these events are folly, and that he is untouchable due
to his position as monarch - in effect, that those trying him will
not have the strength to do what they are threatening. When those
players - including a fantastic, nervous turn by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor
as John Cooke, the man who led the prosecution against Charles -
actually accomplish their goal, all his earlier dismissiveness and
even outright lies to avoid his predicament are wiped away, the
petulance and vanity giving way to surprising, genuine sympathy.
Mark plays the critical final scene - the execution - with regal
poise, veiled nervousness, and strength, the 'three shirts' to
prevent the shivers and thus avoid showing a hint of fear
indicative of a man who up until the last moment believed he was
installed as king to stand in command of all below him, and always
show he was their better. In many ways, it has elements of a
tragedy, but also as a victory for those opposed against him,
without whom the systems and processes of Britain as it is today
would not exist, and the policies of the nation would still be
under the complete control of the ruling
monarch.
More than any other new play we have seen recently, 55
Days engenders huge amounts of complexity and areas of
discussion, bringing history to life while also contemporising it.
It effectively makes these nation defining, almost unthinkable
events accessible to a modern audience, while simultaneously
driving home that this is the past, and that these things had to
come to pass to form the country that we know today. That this
complexity is revealed not just in the narrative but also in the
characters themselves is a remarkable achievement, and as a piece
of drama it is one of the most electrifying, energising experiences
we have had in a theatre this year.
55 Days is playing at the Hampstead Theatre, London, until
November 24 2012. To check ticket availability, visit their website.
