Review: The Canterbury Tales at the Acorn Theatre

The newly reopened Acorn Theatre in Penzance has been waiting 18 months to hold its latest production, and finally the time has arrived.

After selling out all of its initial dates, the Acorn Theatre in Penzance will be holding an extended run of Simon Harvey and David Mynne's rendition of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

Revered as one of the most important works in English literature, ‘The Canterbury Tales’ paints an ironic and critical portrait of English society in the middle-ages and The Packet was invited to attend the first warm up performance before the show's public run commences.

Performing four of the 23 stories featured in Chaucer's works, David Mynne, who performs all of the tales solo, puts in a comedic performance sprinkled with moments of drama that colour the performance and keep it from veering off completely into the realm of just another silly silly re-telling.

Mynne's performance definitely does have its silly moments, and his facial expressions and sound effects add to the hilarity all the more, combining slapstick comedy in the vein of Laurel and Hardy with physical comedy reminiscent of performers such as Harry Hill.

Being the only performer on stage, Mynne has only himself and a few props to work with during the show, and yet still manages to both capture and keep the attention of the audience throughout the duration of the show.

Sharp and witty writing also helps to give life to the tales, mixing 'ye olde English' with several modern tropes that allow the audience to further relate to characters they might otherwise struggle to given the medieval setting.

The tale of the three brothers stands out as a particular highlight given the way in which Mynne differentiates the characters from one another, using both physical attributes and vocal tones to let the audience know who's who.

Overall, the performance of the Acorn's artist in residence was both comedic and dramatic, never taking himself too seriously and always looking like he was having as much fun as the audience.

The play was originally set to run just before the start of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, and it would appear that the writers and cast have used that time wisely, looking to sharpen and fine-tune while waiting for the green light to perform to the public.

It has definitely paid off.

Review: Coddington Village Hall

David Mynne, veteran Cornish actor, arrived in Coddington as a very ‘old’ friend of the village because he’s remembered for successful performances at the Village Hall going back to 2013 with impressive interpretations of some great classics; Great Expectations (2013), The Odyssey (2017), A Christmas Carol (2018) and now he’s brought his latest Canterbury Tales show to the village hall.
So his reputation was the draw on such a balmy night in the village and those previous performances had the audience expecting something akin to at least more of the same.  This time, the script was billed as very loosely adapted from the Chaucer original and is a collaboration with Simon Harvey and Anna Maria Murphy

So maybe different to previous helpings from Dave, this time we were promised “It’s rude! It's ribald! It's ridiculous! and we were warned to expect “naughtiness, nonsense and medieval swearing!”
Ultimately the latest gig-night in the village hall was teased with: “Let's party like it's 1387!”

Dave began with a poignant and dramatic entrance that combined performance with [warm] wardrobe as he processed through the audience to the stage swathed in a proper medieval bathrobe - his powerful Middle English dialogue setting the scene with the evening’s prologue.

To be fair, he assured us that these were ‘right words, impossible to understand’, before introducing us to his narrative character; Harry Bailey, a landlord who was keen to welcome the audience to ‘his place - The Canterbury’, an Olde English Inn, ‘infamous around these parts for villainy and sin’.

Dave skilfully used Harry’s character to explain that “the floor is caked in sawdust for soaking up the spit, and the air is thick with stories “told with wisdom, guile and wit”.  Indeed, this ribald hostelry was known for playing host to story-telling competitions, along with the offer of overnight accommodation in the available ‘penthouse hovel’.  This cleverly set up scene after scene for Dave, using his trademark method of minimal props, to weave-in his compelling and enthralling extracts from the range of Chaucer tales.  Ultimately this was the basis for the whole of his evening’s performance and the audience lapped it up.

Dave took the chance to draw in the audience even more with some quick-fire daft dad-type jokes such as “Q. What does a medieval person say when they see an alien UFO?  A. Oh, that’s a Flying Chaucer!”  It may have sounded corny but it helped get the audience relaxed and made Harry’s character very likeable indeed.

As the stories emerged, starting with The Miller’s Tale where Dave’s version of Absolon was clever, witty and quiet Blackadderesk, and the smartly constructed interaction between John and Nicholas incorporated the hilarious portrayal of building a boat with medieval power tools - quite honestly brilliant in its humour.

All through the performance Dave portrayed Harry as a great continuity announcer, helped by ‘ale by the flagon’ and ‘medieval bar snacks’ such as his own invention of crispy slug bites, bags of which would feature ‘deliciously’ later in Dave’s set.

What followed was the interpretation of Franklin’s Tale transporting us to Yorkshire and labelled as Trouble at t’mill.  Told with dramatic dexterity, Dave switched effortlessly between Averagus, Aurelius and Dorigen taking us nicely to the half-time break.

After the interval, Dave’s intricate trickery with three more flagons brought to life the tale of brothers; Thomas, Richard and Harold and their hopeless attempt to put one over on Death.

As his final yarn, and positioned as being after the watershed, Dave’s performance was capped with a highly amusing take on The Reeves Tale including some energetic corn-grinding and lots of sourdough all wrapped up in the story of students John and Alan on a rumbustious romp.

There is no doubt that Dave’s typical dramatic performance with minimal props provides a superb evening of entertainment and many members of the audience were left trying to imagine which classic he will conquer next.  Whatever it might be, Coddington will be very keen to welcome him back.