Radio review: The Rival

The closing of the theatres for Covid has been compared many times to the Elizabethan closing of the theatres for plague, and I wouldn't be surprised if we get a few plays in the next few years explicitly making the connection and following Shakespeare in that time. But while Jude Cook's radio play The Rival does that, its inspiration is one that's been giving writers and academics food for thought for centuries, most recently in the Globe's hit Emilia: The story of Shakespeare's Sonnets, and the mysterious figures they're dedicated to. The poetry collection starts in workmanlike enough fashion, when Shakespeare (Elliot Barnes-Worrell) is hired by Lord Burghley (Philip Jackson) to write 17 sonnets meant to convince his wealthy ward to marry his granddaughter. They fail completely on that front but the Earl of Southampton, known as Wriothesley (Freddie Fox,) becomes Shakespeare's patron, and when the plague closes the theatres he returns to Wriothesley's home to write the long narrative poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece.

He also becomes besotted with the young Earl, and the two begin an affair which inspires the majority of the rest of the Sonnets. Near the end of the 154 sonnets the subject turns to the mysterious "Dark Lady," here the wife of Wriothesley's tutor, Aline Florio (Indra Ové.) She seduces both men, putting a strain on their relationship, while at the same time another writer, George Chapman (Ben Deery) makes a play for the Earl's patronage. The play is described as "erotically charged," which on radio translates to a certain amount of slurping and squelching noises, and it paints the playwright as prone to monomaniacally throwing himself into either work or his latest passion, his friends and family left to fend for themselves.

The play's fun for the Shakespeare nerd in me, throwing around, on top of the central ideas on the story behind the Sonnets, plenty of inside references: The theory that Shakespeare was secretly a practicing Catholic (well, he snogs Wriothesley in a confessional,) his dodgy understanding of European geography is pointed out by Aline's Italian husband (Philip Arditti,) there's an early read-through of Richard III where it's suggested that maybe he could be a Machiavellian figure from the start rather than having the Devil make him do it, and the villainous Burghley is even put forward as possibly being behind the murder of Marlowe (Tim Downie.) I did think Cook could have done more to question the way the characters are presented in the Sonnets - Wriothesley remains highly romanticised, Aline is a foul temptress. But at least Shakespeare, who seems to spend the second half of the play just accumulating enemies, is delved into as a complex and not entirely likeable character. The Rival fizzles out a bit and leaves various threads untied, but it has its moments.

The Rival by Jude Cook is available until the 27th of July on BBC Sounds.

Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.

Image credit: BBC.