The Rivals
by Rachel Kavanaugh
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Chris Bianchi, Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh, James Hayes, Martin Hutson, Selina CadellDirector: Rachel Kavanaugh
Brand: KUL
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 147 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kultur Video
Movie Reviews of The Rivals
Movie Review: good performance from a top company
Summary: 5 Stars
While this is known as a Restoration comedy, the producer points out that it was written well after that period. Nevertheless, it has all the trappings of such: comedy of manners, the screen scenes, mistaken identities, love tangles. It is more a satire, not so much on life then but on Sheridan's own young life and the gossip surrounding it. What shows that it is post-Restoration is that there is in the play a psychological layer, which the producer milks maybe a bit much. I found Faulkland's angst tiring at times, and the bustly mannerisms of Julia a bit overdone. The father/son scenes are Absolutely excellent, and Mrs. Malaprop nicely delivered. The whole cast in fact does the play justice, with finesse and intelligence. It was filmed for TV onstage at the Bristol Old Vic before a live audience, and as so many productions are now done in mock-up studios and on location where conversations are heard sotto-voce, it was odd to hear stage voices projecting during close-ups - a strange mix of studio intimacy and the remoteness of the live stage. Also, after seeing so much theater now filmed on location, I found the fixed Zen stage setting somewhat claustrophobic despite the clever scene changes. But this is all my subjective viewpoint. All in all the play moves at a brisk pace with wit and humour - Sheridan's genius - and I shall watch it again.
Summary of The Rivals
The Rivals, Sheridan?s first play, is a portrait made of material from his own life, his scandalous marriage to a popular singer of the age and the characters he had come to know in the town of Bath. As his biographer Fintan O?Toole said, it was an attempt ?to inflate everything that people thought they knew about him into a huge, hysterical burlesque. Instead of inventing a story and pretending it was real, he could present his own reality as if it were an invention.' Sheridan?s great satire turns the familiar world of arranged marriages, courtship and rivalry on its head. One of the sharpest and funniest social comedies of the late eighteenth century is presented here in the perfect setting of a theatre built just nine years before the play was written. Directed by Rachel Kavanagh, with Selina Cadell, recorded at Bristol Old Vic. "Rachel Kavanaugh?s elegant, nimble-footed production is the best account of Sheridan?s play I?ve seen." THE SUNDAY TIMES "..whenever Selina Cadell sails on to the stage in this latest revival, a rose-red galleon half as old again as she wants to be, the evening?s pleasure-content soars. She deranges her epigraphs with an unstressed equanimity, and never the hint of a doubt crosses her carefully composed countenance." THE TIMES "Peter McKintosh has designed a spacious Georgian set; in the background, a soft Gainsborough sky. This is a treat." THE SUNDAY TIMESSimilar DVD Movies
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