“All for one and one for all!” So goes the famous saying, and the Lace Market Theatre’s production of “The Three Musketeers”, adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ novel by John Nicholson, takes this phrase quite literally, beginning the performance by dishing out sweets to audience members in an attempt to immediately get us all on board. Thankfully, no such bribes are necessary, as the four actors throw themselves into this off-the-wall production with such enthusiasm that the audience can’t help but be dragged along for the ride.
Condensing the roughly 700-page novel into a single evening of entertainment is no mean feat, but this isn’t the only challenge facing this intrepid foursome – this is a story with multiple characters and only four actors. Cue an endless stream of multi-role, as the four incredibly talented actors bring to life a huge variety of characters and caricatures. Each character is given proper attention, regardless of whether they recur throughout the play, or whether they are glimpsed in a single scene and then not seen again. Everything from voice to movement is carefully considered to make these characters unique and believable – or as believable as they can be in this heightened, madcap world.
Directed by Matt Huntbach and produced by Ali Lit, the main premise of the play centres around a group of ten-year-olds (sorry, three ten-year-olds and an eleven-year-old!) who, obsessed with Dumas’ swashbuckling tale, attempt to bring the story to life with minimal set (Alex Hopkin-Spratt’s design is genius), props (Lexsley Brown) and costume (Max Bromley). This serves as a nice introduction to the play (reminiscent of other works such as “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)“), but as a concept is only really touched on in the opening and closing scene, the rest of the play focusing on the story they are telling and not getting distracted by the premise.
Ian Currie stars as D’Artagnan, and there is much fun made of the fact that he is the oldest actor on the stage playing the youngest character. It is D’Artagnan’s story that we follow throughout the play, and as a result Currie doesn’t partake in the multi-role as much as the others, but he is still given the opportunity to bring to life memorable characters such as Cardinal Guard 1 and Praying Nun. D’Artagnan sets off to join the Musketeers, only to find that they have been disbanded by the evil Cardinal Richelieu. When the Queen’s maid Constance is kidnapped, D’Artagnan and the Musketeers team up to rescue her.
Constance and Richelieu are both played by Charlotte Carter, who also takes on the role of god-fearing Musketeer Aramis. Any worries that this could be confusing are quickly dispelled, as Carter is more than capable of switching characters – one scene sees her seamlessly switch back and forth between a barman and bar lady in the blink of an eye, but it is so cleverly performed that it is easy to follow and joyous to watch. Carter’s Constance is your usual damsel-in-distress, sharing some tender scenes with D’Artagnan (although, as with most of this production, it is played very tongue-in-cheek), whilst her Richelieu is an out-and-out baddie, with evil laughs galore.
As cake-loving Porthos, Tilda Stickley rides around on a tricycle, hardly striking fear into the crowd but providing plenty of laughs. Stickley truly shines as the conniving Milady de Winter, using her Alpine lake eyes to seduce every man she comes across, which leads to some off-stage action with some – ahem – interesting sound effects. A confrontation between the Musketeers and Milady sees the actors blasted by a vacuum cleaner and dead leaves in a very funny climactic moment.
Constantly trying to lead the Musketeers, but never quite succeeding in winning their confidence, Athos (Tom Pluse) is brash, loud and completely bonkers. Pluse’s characters often stray into pantomime territory, keeping events lively throughout, from King Louis’s high-pitched shrieks to Monsieur Bonacieux’s decrepit and senile ad-libs. Just when you think Pluse has nothing left to give, her re-appears as a gun-wielding nun, and laughs erupt from the audience once more.
The play is completely insane, and no review could ever adequately describe some of the events that occur. Stage manager Emma Carlton tries to keep the cast on track as much as possible, providing live sound-effects throughout (with help from sound designer Darren Coxon), but this is a cast that is impossible to control – once they are off, there’s no stopping them. Just when you think things can’t get any more weird, Currie and Pluse dance round the stage dressed as butterflies, and the entire thing moves to another level of ‘out-there’. At just over two-and-a-half hours, this is a long play, but the cast make it seem effortless, their energy never dipping throughout. Over-the-top, exhausting, but a lot of fun.
Tom Morley, May 2025
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