Photo credit Andrew Billington
The 1844 famous Alexandre Dumas classic has been adapted for this years’ festive production at New Vic. A swashbuckling story about a young man named d’Artagnan who travels to Paris to join the Royal Guard and befriends three of the most famous musketeers. Along the way he meets Milady and gets caught up in a villainous plot, can d’Artagnan and his new friends uncover the secret agent and the mastermind behind it all?
Theresa Hesksins delivers a hugely entertaining production with elaborate costumes, clever choreography and the swish and clash of the rapier. The fight direction by Philip d’Orléans is constantly impressive throughout and you can only imagine the time spent on the elaborate moves to achieve the end result. It is cleverly interlaced with parts that are in slow motion, both due to the sheer volume of action, so your eyes can take it all in, or to emphasise a particular battle.
D’Artagnan (Lemar Moller) and Milady (Charlotte Price) are both shown in this adaptation to interestingly have similar backgrounds of humdrum existence, both wishing to break free. They both delivered excellent performances along with musketeers Athos (Louis J Rhone), Porthos (Hadley Smith) and Aramis (Thomas Dennis) who were high energy, entertaining and had a great chemistry on stage.
New Vic favourites Gareth Cassidy and Perry Moore were excellent at getting into character, with Gareth adding humour as the bumbling King (as well as D’Artagnan’s father) and Perry as the villainous Cardinal.
Emma Symmonds and Chloe Ragrag were also entertaining as the Queen and Lady’s Maid Constance, both providing an amusing pairing as well as getting heavily involved in the action.
Laura Willstead’s set design was once again impressive with a cascading staircase providing a lovely backdrop, being well used in the action which also included out into the audience, from the air and under the stage floor. It also provided the perfect canvas for Charles Balfour’s lighting design which added much and came into its own during the slow motion scenes and the Royal Ball.
It is definitely fun for all the family, irrespective of age. During the performance we attended, there were a large number of children and it held their attention for the whole production, with them clapping along to the music during the Royal Ball and laughing along at the physical comedy of some of the earlier fight scenes.
Its an imaginative, entertaining and fun production. It is on until 25th January, so gives plenty of options to fit this into and around your festive schedule. This also includes limited dates for an interactive dress up adventure for 3-5 year olds. Tickets are available from the box office or online at https://www.newvictheatre.org.uk/productions/the-three-musketeers/
