On Venice Preserv'd and its leading man Ashley Zhangazha

By Helena Payne

Charlotte Westernra’s mind must be an extraordinary landscape to inhabit. People bandy around the word “visionary” far too often but her multi-sensory site specific production of Venice Preserv’d is just that. The Spectator’s Guild pushes the boundaries of the theatrical experience and we partake in, as well as observe the action. Helen Scarlett O’Neil designs worlds as diverse as vibrant carnivals, gurgling canals, taverns and even a grand senate that you can touch and feel. This is theatre that demands that you dive in head first. The experience begins like the trickle of at a spring; a few strange costumes, masks and flags whirling in little eddies round the bow of the Cutty Sark. We wonder whether we’re quite in the right place or whether these reprobates in converse and threadbare costumes are the characters from the psychological restoration drama, Venice Preserv’d. Thankfully, just as we’re beginning to doubt the organisation, actors burst into life and music. The accordion and clarinet played beautifully provide us with accompaniment as we are swept along the river in carnival spirits to our mystery destination. You might end up in a wheelbarrow, brandishing a flag or accused of some heinous crime by the energetic and entertaining supporting cast. All bets are off.

Appropriately, we process through a secluded dockyard to a decked courtyard with the backdrop of the Thames. There is some commedia-del arte business and more music as everyone waits expectantly for the performance to begin. Otway’s Venice Preserv’d is often described as a problem play for its central figure; the fairly reprehensible Jaffier, who sacrifices his blameless wife to his honour played faultlessly by Jessie Buckley. However, the plot’s shortcomings for a modern audience are exonerated by the robust performance given by Ashley Zhangazha who guides us through Jaffier’s conflicted heart and Promethean fall from grace.

In conversation Zhangazha informs me that for him, finding Jaffier and making him seem more sympathetic to an audience was a question of “honour.” He elegantly and rather wistfully espouses that in modern culture with our transient values, our word is subject to alteration, whereas for Jaffier and his contemporaries “honour is everything.” He shares that Venice Preserv’d has been a challenge, using every note in his acting register as Jaffier does indeed play the lover, the tyrant and every shade in between. He also highlighted how we can forgive the impetuousness of Jaffier’s youth as he is only kicking against the system under the anomalous banner of “the greater good.” I admitted commiserating with his ragbag of protesters, certainly discontent, but unsure how to channel their dissatisfaction. Zhangazha confides that his Jaffier’s undoing is that he “trusts too well” and despite being “desperately in love with his wife,” feels the compulsion to bring about change because he believes it will benefit his young family in the long run. He is torn between his love for his wife and his love for his friend. Still, love is and has always been perniciously messy.

This conflict between homo-social and hetero-sexual love and loyalty make the play particularly timely. Anyone involved in contemporary discourse on gender identity will know that we have recently reached a watershed with old ideals of masculinity replaced by hopes that equality will dismantle macho culture. Men are no longer expected or desired to be violent or emotionless, but many still find this shift a threat to their misled self-worth. Just read the internet. Jaffier plays out this anxiety as he desperately searches for validation in all the wrong places, rather than trusting the only character who seems to have her head screwed on. Jessie Buckley as Belvidera is all the more tragic in that she is no victim, she constantly challenges and pleads with her infuriating husband to see sense. With performances the size of Buckley’s the thrill of the mixed media in the production can jar. As beautifully shot as it is, we do not need to see a film of a sodden Jaffier to know that Belvidira’s heart is breaking.

My favourite comedic turn came from Pip Donaghy as Antonio, the corrupt Senator constantly begging his courtesan, Aquilina, played feistily by Ayesha Antoine for a bit of S and M. He represents what we believe about all politicians behind closed doors and Donaghy seems to revel in his buffoonery. A special mention must also go to Ferdinand Kingsley who delivers Otway’s poetry with such vocal dexterity and emotional range it streams like quicksilver.

It is a shame that the play is staged as irregularly as it is, as the poetry and characters are quite extraordinary. Still, if it is only to be performed every fifteen years it should be a performance like this. Some great actors have taken the role of Jaffier including John Gielgud and most recently Michael Pennington. Rising star Ashley Zhangazha will surely join their stratosphere. Modestly Zhangazha said he didn’t consider this posterity a “burden,” rather a “privilege and honour” to represent the next instalment in the play’s infrequent life. A keen advocate of gender-blind as well as colour-blind casting, Zhangazha is a much more forward thinking gentleman than his Jaffier and will no doubt build on the success of this role.

I enjoyed every element of Venice Preserv’d; the procession, the visuals and most significantly, the performances, but that does not mean they should have been in the same production. There was a disjunction between the carnival, dumb show and actual play that felt incongruous at times. As beautiful as many of the images were, sometimes it is important to trust your actors and their capability. Zhangazha, Ferdinand Kingsley and most notably Jessie Buckley, held my attention totally with their performances, that sometimes I resented the extraneous distractions. Regardless, it is paramount that we have directors and designers as brave as Westernra and the Spectator’s Guild to push the boundaries of what theatre can be and Venice Preserv’d certainly did that.

A couple of notes, wear more clothes than you think you need, this is Greenwich not Venice. Ask for a blanket at the beginning if you feel at all chilly and don’t wear high shoes.

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