Ah, The Three Musketeers. What can I say? I want lots, and I mean LOTS, of sword fights, a very mean Cardinal Richlieu, a beautiful and scheming Milady, a diamond necklace, our three eponymous heroes and, central to it all, the gorgeous country bumpkin, terrific shagger and, um, expert swordsman D’Artagnan.

With a great book, three movies and even a BBC radio dramatisation, Theresa Heskins’ own adaptation and production has a lot to live up to, and it nearly makes it. She satisfies the swordfights expectation early on, and to good effect. There are several throughout the show, including a mass fight near the end which has so many blades flying round it looks positively dangerous. Of course it isn’t, the fights have all been very carefully choreographed by the fight director (and appropriately named) Philip D’Orléans, but the actors transcend that and I was convinced.

Perry Moore’s Cardinal Richlieu could be a bit more fearsome, I thought, but is horrid enough that we delight in his inevitable comeuppance. Charlotte Price’s Milady is more of a peasant-made-good than we normally see. Heskins provides a backstory for her which helps us understand her driving ambition, and Price plays that to the hilt, as it were. And we delight in her comeuppance too, class traitor that she is. 

Our heroes are swaggeringly played by Louis J Rhone, a convincing Athos, who always wins; Hadley Smith, an extremely funny Porthos who wins despite his need to fill his stomach; and Thomas Dennis who gives a charismatic Aramis whom you have no trouble imagining as a great lover, no matter how much trouble it gets him into. Lemar Moller as D’Artagnan is indeed gorgeous, and gives a terrific shagger and swordsman to which none would demur, and judging by the programme this is his first professional job. He will go far, you heard it here first. The thing I wonder about all of these men is this: were they cast six months ago so they could grow their hair or do they just wear it that way?

D’Artagnan’s love interest, Constance, is a delightfully coquettish Chloe Ragrag, who is maidservant to the Queen, played by Emma Symonds as a silly little snob whom we could cheerfully hate were it not for Gareth Cassidy’s King, a fops’ fop and an absolute delight. They so deserve each other.

The ensemble – a cast of 16 –  give excellent support. They fight, they march, they arrest people, and one in particular, Farrah Hughes, gives very good horse.

The soundtrack by Matt Baker is impressively filmic and rises, and falls, to the occasion, and there is some excellent foley work with doors and keys and locks, which has become something of a Heskins trademark.

And so to the necklace. It’s as impressive a piece of bling as you could hope to see, well done props department. It’s also the perfect MacGuffin, the object that drives the plot but is insignificant in itself. In the original, the Queen has given her necklace to the English Duke of Buckingham and Richlieu wants it to prove to the King that the Queen is a traitor. Heskins has changed the plot, as is her right, and I’m not entirely sure what the necklace story is here, but, like the Maltese Falcon, it creates a lot of sound and fury.

The Three Musketeers is a proper Christmas treat that will work for anyone who likes a good adventure, and fulfils all one’s expectations. You have until January 25.

By Chris Wallis, Theatre Editor

Photos by Andrew Billington

 

The Three Musketeers is at the New Vic in Stoke until January 25, 2025. For more information, click here.