(c) Bronwen Sharp

The latest reviews of King John, this time at the Globe,  have been coming in over the weekend and are sensational.  Alex has been particularly praised for his performance as the Bastard.

Sarah Hemmings four stars in the Financial Times refers to “Alex Waldmann’s enjoyable performance. .[…]. Howard Loxton in the British Theatre Guide notes that, “Alex Waldemann [sic] gives him [the Bastard] honesty and an easy rapport with the audience.”

Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph also gives the production four stars and says,

“The evening thrives on a dark comedy of decisions hastily taken, steadfast enmities suddenly resolved in the name of expediency, principles sacrificed – all this commented on by Falconbridge, referred to as the “Bastard”, an arch, cynical opportunist who in Alex Waldmann’s lusty, sneering performance is far more vigorously in control than Stone-Fewings’s grey-bearded, rather wan King (whose frail thread of life snaps before our eyes in a fantastic deathbed scene).”

Read the full review here.

David Ralf in the online magazine,  Exeunt Magazine is full of praise for Alex’s performance.

“But the show belongs to Alex Waldmann as The Bastard, who gives up land and legitimacy to claim royal lineage and a knighthood, and with it the sir-name of his supposed father Richard Plantagenet. His belief in kingship over commodity, in destiny over political proficiency, and in nobility over the marriages and bartering that hide behind it, win us over easily because we are so uninspired by John. Not the Shakespeare’s typical Machiavellian Aaron or Edmund, Waldmann’s smiling unpolished Bastard nevertheless develops a similar easy complicit relationship with the audience. He is unsocialised in the ways of pomp, but he unfailingly acts with noble pride and blunt bravery, where John only chokes and cavils in response to his mother, the citizens of Angiers, and papal authority – the audience get barely a glance from him. The compelling arc of the play is watching the Bastard’s faith fail him, as he sees John (C16^th spoilers ahead) succumb to an ignoble death by poison, his country torn apart in near civil war.”

From David Ralf’s four star review in Exeunt Magazine. Read the full review here.

This is Alex’s first time performing in the Globe, and he’s clearly at home in the space. We hope we’ll see more of him there in the future. Fingers crossed.