The Fair Maid of the West
The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

HEYWOOD’s reputation has ranged wildly over the centuries, from being described by Charles Lamb as “a prose Shakespeare” to his many plays being “deformed by pages of drivel.” So there was no need for co-writer and director Isobel McArthur’s programme note defending her decision to “have made wild departures” from Thomas Heywood’s Jacobean romp.  

In fact his original play, featuring the adventures of the spunky 17-year-old barmaid Bess (here Liz) Bridges, was so popular that the busy wordsmith immediately served up a second part. Like the production which notably featured in the 1986 opening season of the Swan, the RSC’s smaller Stratford venue, the new production has conflated the two parts into one.

There the similarities end. Whereas Trevor Nunn skilfully reshaped Heywood’s plays for audience expectations a quarter of a century ago, McArthur has gone for the full pantomime treatment.

Deploying the fragmentary skeletal bones of the original with total freedom, she has all but ditched the plot in order to provide fun and games throughout. 

Intentions are signalled from the opening in the Dog and Arseholes tavern. Amber James’s ebullient Liz, on the run from a framed murder charge, takes over the empty Open Arms pub with a clientele made up of an ensemble of assorted zanies who serve up the floor show, including jukebox musical interludes.

There is the shadow of the plot in the background and some witty play with rhyming couplets from narrator and commentator, Richard Catz. 

In the first half Liz repulses the efforts of Philp Labey’s Spenser, a desperate and somewhat ineffectual lover but slowly sees him afresh. When it is wrongly reported that Spenser has died abroad, the second half physically turns the bar into a ship in which she sets off with her motley crew to retrieve his body.

There are jokes about the English abroad and comic foreigners with Tom Babbage’s ever boasting postman, Windbag, eventually saving the day by proving after all that he was in fact able to speak fluent Spanish.

A hugely enthusiastic audience obviously had a great night out but, I am not sure that they knew what it was all about. But it is Christmas!

Runs until January 14 2024. Box Office: 01789 331111, rsc.org.uk