The Times, June 25, 1986, by Martin Cropper
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There is something inherently and inescapably ludicrous 
about staging Bible stories, stemming perhaps from the 
lurking fear of sacrilege in The Word made flesh. Peter 
Shaffer's revamping of the Old Testament--now partly recast 
by Peter Hall from the company that opened last December--
knows this all too well.

Those unacquainted with the two sources from which Mr. 
Shaffer conflated his script--the Book of Samuel and Dan 
Jacobson's novel *The Rape of Tamar*--are given ample 
assistance from the eponymous anti-hero, who introduces the 
action and provides running commentary throughout. This is 
an unfortunately obtrusive and lowering device which 
pretends to do more than it does, and succeeds in undoing a 
good deal more.

Combining the less attractive aspects of Iago and Uriah 
Heep, our devious MC introduces the vainglorious King David 
(John Bluthal); his spoilt eldest sons, the bullish Amnon 
(Leigh Lawson) and the narcissistic virgin Absalom (Anthony 
Head); his witchy daughter Tamar (Wendy Morgan); and Yonadab 
himself (Patrick Stewart upgrading from the role of David in 
place of Alan Bates), the royal nephew who sets up Tamar's 
rape at the hands of Amnon and, subsequently, Amnon's murder 
at the hands of Absalom.

Apart from John Bury's sumptuous design and Mr. Bluthal's 
overdone David (his cry of woe is an outrageous yawn at the 
top of the throne steps), the eye is held chiefly by the 
woeful clumsiness with which the key incidents are handled: 
the scene where Amnon persuaded Yonadab to be his ambassador 
in an attempt to make peace with Absalom founders between 
lowbrow comedy and psychological drama, while the treatment 
of Tamar's rape, with *poses plastiques* silhouetted against 
the vast dividing curtains, brings to mind the prurience of 
Victorian pornography.

This would not matter so much were we not invited, 
ultimately, to see the victim as a pioneering champion of 
women's rights.



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