The School for Scandal review – a triumph of style over substance

Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s intricately plotted comedy centres around the pernicious effects of gossip, which almost destroys a marriage, a love affair and a young man’s chances of inheriting a fortune. A hit from its opening night on 8 May 1777, it was praised by an early biographer for its avoidance of caricature, its “natural and striking situations” and its successful union of refinement with simplicity. These are not qualities on show in Tinuke Craig’s striking new production. Here, all is exaggeration.

Designer Alex Lowde drenches set and costumes in a saturated, bubble-gum pink, offset by touches of black; frocks and suits mishmash 18th-century styles with a dash of Vivienne Westwood sass. The world presented is fantastical, as are the characters who inhabit it. Only Geoffrey Streatfeild’s Sir Peter Teazle and Tara Tijani’s Lady Teazle are given space to share moments of affective (and genuinely affecting) intimacy, and Wil Johnson’s Sir Oliver to communicate true feeling.

Actors’ movements and gestures are jaggedly stylised, almost as if they are fast-forwarding through sequences of attitudes copied from James Gillray caricatures; lines are delivered in similarly unrealistic vocal registers. The energetic, 19-strong cast delivers this cartoon style with panache.

A new prologue refers to the “woke playwright” and Slapps , while the altered epilogue instructs us not to live in fear of others’ opinions. Sheridan’s text is delivered almost unaltered, except for two significant accommodations to modern sensibilities. Sir Oliver’s colonial associations are openly problematised. However, the “friendly Jew”, Moses, is simply regenerated as a “financier” without comment.

Sheridan’s gift was to allow audiences to perceive the frail, damaged and/or hopeful humans beneath the polished social surfaces. Craig’s production mostly opts for style over substance: a broad-brush, knockabout entertainment, momentarily amusing but, overall, unsatisfying.

• The School for Scandal is at the Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, until 6 September