In this week of Mexico’s era-defining presidential election, it’s intriguing to rewind some 600 years to, as the subtitle of this nobly intentioned endurance test has it, “the rise of the Aztecs”.
Playwright Luis Mario Moncada, commissioned by the World Shakespeare Festival for a co-production between the RSC and the Compañía Nacional de Teatro de México, takes as his inspiration Shakespeare’s Histories. Unfortunately the end result bears far more resemblance to Mexico’s modern-day telenovela soap operas, only with much more elaborate headgear.
Quite how and, crucially, why the Aztecs triumphed over the many warring tribes in the Valley of Mexico I would be quite unable to relate, even after three hours. Just reading the synopsis is enough to make one’s head spin like a big night on the tequila, and the fact that Moncada has compressed his work down from the originally intended trilogy doesn’t aid clarity. Events and characters hurtle past, but there’s almost no psychological insight. If there were soliloquies, though, we’d be here until the end of the world as the Mayans foresaw it.
A parade of polysyllabic names is a further foxing factor, although one that stands out is Ixtlixochitl, played by the charismatic Alex Waldmann sporting a massive Mohican sided by elaborate azure mosaic pieces. He’s a Hal-style playboy prince who won’t do what Daddy wants, and he even has time briefly to spurn a Falstaffian figure. Once he meets a grisly end, we’re in for tough times, although Waldmann’s second appearance recalls The Winter’s Tale. Full marks to director Roxana Silbert for giving this a shot, but markedly fewer for the finished product.
In rep until July 28 (0844 800 1110, rsc.org.uk)
