Hollywood Reporter
March 6, 2003
By Bill Hagerty

Outgoing director Trevor Nunn's final production at the National Theatre is not so much a parting shot as a parting fusillade. To begin with, he has augmented his Anything Goes cast with the likes of Shakespeare in Love's Joseph Fiennes. Secondly, he has set Shakespeare's "witty and pleasant" comedy to the days immediately before World War I. Indeed, the production opens and closes with battle scenes of such ferocity as to cause laughter to freeze in the throat.

At the close, the look that passes between Fiennes' Berowne, now an officer tending his wounded and dying men, and Kate Fleetwood's Rosaline, a nurse in the thick of the flying bullets, provides a mighty poignant moment. Nunn, the wiliest of theatrical conjurers, has ensured himself a triumphant exit from the River Thames-side National following his sensational Anything Goes.

The story of how the King of Navarre and three friends vow to deny themselves the company of women for three years while studying is flimsy even by the standards of Shakespeare's more gentle comedies. Of course, they barely open a book before the beautiful Princess of France arrives with three delectable ladies-in-waiting.

John Gunter's grass-carpeted set, dominated by a lifelike giant of a tree, establishes a pastoral feel so the atmosphere is placid until romantic sparks begin to fly between the couples, with the lofty Berowne and feisty Rosaline generating the most electricity.

The scene where the four swains individually confess their love - secretly, they believe, but actually in front of a growing hidden audience as the pals one by one take cover - is set to music. The result is stunning, as is Fiennes' descent from his hiding place high in the tree - dexterous and daring enough to give the show's insurers nightmares.

Fiennes is a commanding, rakish Berowne, and Fleetwood is a handsome Rosaline. Supporting these are a cluster of fine performances from many of the Anything Goes alumni, especially those of Martin Marquez, gloriously extravagant as the Spanish knight Don Adriano, and Simon Day, a permanently bemused King Ferdinand.

To end his 5-1/2year reign with a brace of irresistible hits is testament to Nunn's pre-eminence. Incoming director Nicholas Hytner has a helluva act to follow.