Revenge is a dish served lukewarm

The Revenger's Tragedy, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, 0161 833 9833, until June 28

Stephen Tompkinson racks up the body count as Vindice and his alter ego Plato Stephen Tompkinson racks up the body count as Vindice and his alter-ego, Plato

WILD AT HEART and Ballykissangel star Stephen Tompkinson is no stranger to the world of spin, having played Drop The Dead Donkey’s conniving reporter Damien Day.

But Machiavellian, plotting a monumental Rambo-style body-count bloodbath to avenge his sweetheart? Surely not.

It is a strange play for Tompkinson, who has always mastered roles of unsure heroes who seem to bungle their way over the finish line.

He plays Vindice, filled with grief about the loss of his beloved fiancée Gloriana – murdered for spurning the ageing Duke’s advances – and nine years later hell-bent on bloody revenge.

His hatred centres on the depraved Duke (Robert Demeger), his brutal son Lussurioso and their scheming, power-crazed family of teenage stepsons. Unsubtle names, such as Ambitioso, Supervacuo, Sordido for the villains and Castiza and Gloriana for the heroes, only sharpen the drama, as does the dialogue.

Evil Lussurioso asks: “Thy name? I’ve forgotten it.” Tompkinson: “Vindice, my lord.” Lussurioso replies: “Good name that.” While beguiling Tompkinson adds: “Aye, a revenger.” The Jacobean play, written in 1606, is a bit of a puzzle – because no one really knows who penned it.

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It may be the work of part-time writer Cyril Tourneur but most believe it to be that of Shakespeare’s student Thomas Middleton, author of The Changeling. It was written in James I’s reign, when England feared moral and financial decay was setting in, while serious question marks hung over its Scottish leader ­– ring any bells?

At its heart is more than revenge and politics. Themes include sensuality, religious redemption, the role of women, wayward youths and the hunger for love replaced by a lust for power. Director Jonathan Moore chops down the turgid text, emphasising its black, comic belly.

The audience’s first glimmer of the dark heart is the mosaic stage, decorated with snakes slithering from a skull in the centre. It rests on graveyard dirt and skeletons – Satan’s playground. Gore comes as standard while the lavish set and costumes, portraying a Goodfellas-suited mafia feel, are by acclaimed designer David Blight.

And then a dozen red roses flutter to the ground as we glimpse Vindice’s brief happiness, followed by a funeral cortège, while the villainous rulers enjoy a disco. But when Tompkinson reappears as alter-ego Piato, like Othello’s Iago befriending and causing the undoing of the Duke’s son, it seems unreal. His black wig tinged red, a pair of round, tinted glasses and a black cape, Tompkinson is a hybrid of Meet The Osbournes and Charles Hawtrey.

Moore not only slices the text but he dices it with street slang for the three vicious stepsons, portrayed as mindless hoodies, which hits and misses. Jonathan Keeble oozes malice as Lussurioso and Damian O’Hare, as Vindice’s brother and accomplice, is a perfect, steady foil to Tompkinson’s buzzing, energetic performance.

Moore’s use of dance music, rap and punk works brilliantly to freeze-frame the characters. But the occasional slapstick, a dance with a corpse and cheap stage gags divert the chilling, dramatic tension being slowly served up on our plate.

Revenge is a dish best served cold – although this still left me more lukewarm than brassed off.

OUR VERDICT: 3/5

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