Theatre / Reviews
Review: How To Win Against History, Bristol Old Vic – ‘fun, frolics and an ultimately uplifting message’
Henry Cyril Paget, the 5th Marquis of Anglesey, born 150 years ago, was once one of the world’s wealthiest men.
He then blew the lot, spending lavishly on jewellery and expensive frocks, many of which he wore himself when staging amazing plays, performed to tiny audiences.
He tore down the family chapel to build a theatre and went on to become an Edwardian scandal before dying bankrupt and penniless at just 29.
Outraged at his reckless extravagance, his family destroyed practically every trace of him and erased him from history. After all, history is always written by the winners.
Henry Cyril Paget was a flamboyant 19th century aristocrat
Seriol Davies, who wrote and performs Henry in How To Win Against History, aims to make sure that he is remembered. And how!
Staged on an opulent and beautifully recreated Edwardian stage, replete with a gold grand piano, a stepped plinth, chaise longue and a four-piece band present throughout behind a gilt frame, we meet Henry and his friend Mr Alexander Keith singing about putting on the sort of show that people would want to see in a song called Mainstream Entertainment.
That is as mainstream as this gorgeously gaudy evening’s entertainment gets.
What follows over the next 90 minutes is a tragi-comic musical about the Empire, the itchiness of tweed and what happens when, despite having been born into wealth and privilege, the world just isn’t built for you.
The original cast of Davies, Matthew Blake as Keith and Dylan Townley as the musical maestro reunite to revive this diamanté-studded Edinburgh Fringe 2016 hit to even greater heights.
Director Lisa Spirling has done more than a glow up job and presents a joyous romp that will delight BOV audiences over the next three weeks.
The show is a rightful celebration of Henry Paget’s life
Moments of pure slapstick tomfoolery and outrageous comedy combine with flashes of real pathos, all portrayed by Davies’ naïve and often bemused expression.
One minute he revels in the sheer gorgeousness of cross-dressing high camp, and the next he faces the fact that nobody likes the shows, and he is ruined.
Henry’s innate weirdness and non-conformity were brusquely consigned to history’s dustbin, with his sole mention in Debrett’s Peerage noting that “regrettably, he lived his life in vain”.
With a rapid-fire rat-a-tat delivery, we follow Henry from flamboyant failure after failure, culminating in a ridiculously elaborate but amateurish butterfly dance.
Mixing show tunes, operetta and a heavy dollop of vaudeville, the show is glittery, volatile, silly and, more importantly, downright fun.
Blake plays a gamut of parts from Henry’s unconventional wife (and unsurprisingly soon to be ex-wife) Lilian, to his housemaster at Eton and, most chilling of all, a diabolical journalist from the Daily Mail.
He is fantastic in each.
Fluid movement, audience interaction and quick-fire changes of mood sweep the whole thing along and, although the play perfectly fits being staged during Pride Month, it is so much more than a queer show – everyone will find something to relate to in it.
All in all, the show is fun, frolics, sympathy for the bizarre, an ultimately uplifting message to ensure a successful rewriting of history and a rightful celebration of Henry Paget’s life.
How To Win Against History is at the Bristol Old Vic until July 12.
Tickets are available from bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/how-to-win-against-history
All photos: Pamela Raith
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