Written on the Heart, RSC Stratford-upon-Avon - review

10 April 2012

Let no one say the theatre has neglected the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. There has been a glut of writing to celebrate the best-selling publication in the history of the world, not least the Bush's ambitious Sixty-Six Books.

Yet no play other than Written on the Heart has examined how or why the KJB came into being, and quite what allowing the average citizen to read the word of God in English for the first time represented both ecclesiastically and politically.

Full marks, then, to David Edgar for bringing us up to speed with the history but fewer for producing a less than nimble-footed drama that will be hard work for those who haven't done their background reading.

The KJB was an attempt to draw a line under the tumult of the English Reformation and was more than anything an amalgam of several previous translations, made during a religiously fraught 16th century during which England flip-flopped between Catholicism, Protestantism and uneasy compromise. Prime among these was that by William Tyndale (Stephen Boxer) whom we see incarcerated for heresy in 1536, in one of Edgar's four snapshot scenes. Elsewhere, the focus falls on Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (Oliver Ford Davies), anguished chief convenor of the 1610 KJB translation committee.

Edgar skilfully suggests the speech of older times without resorting to the archaic but Gregory Doran's production is weighed down by numerous blokes in cloaks spouting fact-stuffed sentences at each other. The inescapable problem is that there's too much here to squeeze into one play.

Ironically, the urbane and informative essay Edgar has written to accompany the published text does the job far more effectively.

In rep until March 10 (0844 800 1110, rsc.org.uk)

Written on the Heart
Royal Shakespeare Company
Waterside
Stratford-upon-Avon
Warwickshire CV37 6BB

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