I would have preferred that to be played slightly less for comedic value and more with some kind of serious intent. Take Maria's performance as Desdemona the first time she does it, for instance. She models her acting completely on Kynaston's. She is a woman playing a man playing a woman. That is more than complicated enough for me to cringe inwardly when she gets seriously mocked on stage for doing a bad job of it. That is more than enough fodder for thought without it being played for slapstick value. So the wit is occasionally like that of Shakespeare, who had to compare with bear-baiting and decidedly less gentile amusements when he wrote his plays. Presuming he did write them, if we want to be post-modern about the whole thing. The rudeness of the comedy is somehow at odds with what the there could be at the centre of it all this.
It is still well worth watching. The costumes and settings are sumptuous and gritty at the same time, Crudrup's performance is impressive and there's a nucleus of doubt about the value of hereto-normative certainties and the sometimes crude wit is entertaining and occasionally cringe-worthy. All that adds up to a slightly confusing, but entertaining spectacle. And that's good enough for me.
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