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Late But Live : Elizabeth & RaleighElizabeth and Raleigh @ Library Theatre ★★★★

By Marissa Burgess in Manchester Evening News Posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

HAVING seen Richard Curtis’ jokey take on history in Blackadder and Frankie Howerd relating his doubles to the people of ancient Rome in Up Pompeii, we’re all familiar with lampooned versions of the history books.

But not many stray as far as this gloriously silly interpretation of the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and her courtier Sir Walter Raleigh.

Following on from their historical recreation of Samuel Johnson and James Boswell’s tour of Scotland last year, writer Stewart Lee – at the suggestion of producer Ian Gillies – has penned a similar vehicle for Liz and Walt and again places Simon Munnery and Miles Jupp in the eponymous lead roles.

The historical duo are played as if both trying their hand at stand-up, an enjoyably ridiculous sight particularly as the material is a classic combination of the Oxford graduate Lee’s penchant for thought-provoking, clever comedy on one hand to unashamedly puerile toilet humour on the other – plus there’s a fair dollop of the absurdism favoured by Munnery.

An added humorous dimension is how well those elements suit the discourses that we associate with both the historical figures; Elizabeth’s speeches easily take on Munnery’s surrealism and Jupp as Raleigh employs the courtly language of the day and imbues it with bawdy comedy.
Main purveyor

Indeed, the cocky yet put upon Raleigh is the main purveyor of Lee’s base silliness with plenty of innuendo and even a potato medley at the top of the show for fans of the Maris Piper and its fellow varieties.

For the haughty Elizabeth, Munnery contributes much from his League Against Tedium stand up days including his somewhat surreal, and at the same time wilfully childish, xenophobic rant.

This tour version of the show is slicker than the somewhat experimental Edinburgh Fringe run of the show.

To make it longer, there’s increased self-reflexive messing about with Liz throwing her arms in the air and announcing ‘interval!’ then cracking open a beer.

There’s more self-conscious japery towards the end of the show. At the point where the Edinburgh show closed, Queen Bess presents a moving soliloquy about potato crisps and rotting strawberries spoken against a haunting backdrop of a single instrument score (provided by Jane Watkins), here on tour the mood created by the monologue is quickly punctured by Raleigh’s comment of ‘and what kind of an ending is that, what does it mean anyway?’.

Written by Marissa Burgess in Manchester Evening News on 17th September 2008. Filed Under: Elizabeth & Raleigh, Late But Live, Reviews
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