After his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, the life of Napoleon Bonaparte becomes a little less prolific, and downright less glorious. A contestant on University Challenge might be able to tell you he died in exile at Longwood House on the island of Saint Helena, but Told by an Idiot’s Napoleon Disrobed at the Arcola Theatre, based on the novel ‘The Death of Napoleon’ by Simon Leys, takes a very different view of the Emperor’s final years.
In this version of events, Bonaparte does not meet his end on that island, but instead swaps places with an officer named Eugene, and escapes. What follows is a series of madcap adventures, including a tour of Waterloo’s battlefield with some British tourists, and a night in an Antwerp hotel, all before settling down to a life of domesticity selling melons.
Stripped of his Emperors regalia, we are left observing the man beneath the famous uniform. It’s wildly absurd and raucously entertaining. Aside from the very funny script, the physical comedy is wonderful, it’s exhausting just watching the characters dash around the stage at breakneck speed. Director, Kathryn Hunter has fantastically translated the mental torment of the Emperor in to a visual spectacle.
Napoleon Disrobed sticks broadly to the plot of Ley’s sardonic novel, but is brought energetically to life by a cast of two. Paul Hunter, as Bonaparte (and briefly Jeremy Paxman) plays the role with such genuine conviction it’s impossible not to find it hilarious, a comically nuanced performance layered and crisp, like a croissant perhaps?!
Ayesha Antoine picks up every other role, including the melon seller, Ostrich, whom Napoleon dotes upon. She too dashes around the set, producing props from every available nook. Antoine’s energy is infectious, lifting the mood in the room for this frenetic and irreverent production.
In the shadow of the French Tricolour, a variety of sets are created using a very simple, but hugely effective stage which almost had me feeling a little sea sick at one point. While it’s not an immersive piece of theatre per se, the audience very much felt a part of proceedings, with Hunter regularly breaking the fourth wall.
In whichever way Napoleon Bonaparte spent his final years, this comic alternative history is the version I will choose to remember, because Napoleon Disrobed doesn’t just play it for laughs, it makes a real effort to see Bonaparte’s driving force, and ultimately delivers it in a hilarious and entertaining format.
