BBC Drama on Three: <i>Venice Preserved</i>

Most Sunday evenings, the BBC broadcasts a play on Radio 3, and on a wet and windy evening last November they re-aired the BBC Scotland 2022 production of Thomas Otway’s 1682 play, Venice Preserved. The performance was preceded by a talk by Professor Adrian Streete from the University of Glasgow, who drew attention to the political context and political significances of the play. This political significance was not lost on Elizabeth Inchbald in her characteristically forthright introduction to the play in The British Theatre. In her “Remarks” to Venice Preserved, Inchbald noted the play’s popularity and that it “is played repeatedly every year; except when an order from the Lord Chamberlain forbids its representation, lest some of the speeches of Pierre should be applied, by the ignorant part of the audience, to certain men, or assembles in the English state” (2, p. 82).No overt censorship was applied to the BBC’s production, but in adapting the play to fit rather less than an hour and a half, many cuts were made to the text. In terms of the time slot, these were doubtless necessary, but in reducing speeches by the conspirators and editing down, Pierre’s angry speeches denouncing Venice, the play’s political teeth were drawn. However, what emerged was a very compelling and passionate drama centered not really on state politics nor corruption, despite the best efforts of Stuart McQuarrie’s Antonio, but on a trio of outspoken and angry young people: Jaffier, Belvidera, and Pierre—with Aquilina as an object of desire and anger. The articulate and angry exchanges of the trio constructed an interesting and slightly different “politics” of youth against age, and the have-nots and dispossessed against wealth. Perhaps this is how the cruelty of Priuli toward his daughter, son-in-law, and grandchild resounds in our twenty-first century of growing divisions between the rich and poor, billionaire arrogance and soup kitchens. Hence this production provides another example of the Venice Preserved’s extraordinary adaptability and ongoing relevance.Regional accents are always fascinating and can color and change a role astonishingly, especially when one is listening, undistracted by movement and scenery. Anna Russell-Martin’s performance as Belvidera deserves acclaim as she projected a firm, capable young Scot, who very clearly deserved much better than she had in either father or husband. Her descent into insanity at the end was all the more moving because she had been so very able, so much in charge of herself and events.