THE HERBAL BED, SALISBURY PLAYHOUSE

HAD Susanna Hall not been the daughter of William Shakespeare, it's doubtful if much would have made of the lawsuit for defamation she brought before an ecclesiastical court in 1613.

Susanna had married physician Dr John Hall and a former apprentice of his, John Lane, had been heard to slander Susanna, accusing her of committing adultery with married neighbour and family friend Rafe Smith and contracting venereal disease.

Susanna won the case, denying both charges and the subject became a footnote in literary history, but in The Herbal Bed, playwright Peter Whelan muses on what might have been the back story to the case.

What emerges is a curious mix of herbalism, religious argument, illicit love and gripping thriller.

The Hall marriage was, on the surface a good one, founded on mutual respect, but very little physical affection, and Susanna, finely played by Emma Pallant as a woman of intelligence and a certain independence of spirit, finds herself torn between duty and desire.

Director Caroline Leslie keeps tight rein on the production as emotions bottled up by religious and social constraint overspill and husbands, lovers and servants conspire to undermine a slander that only the timely arrival of a servant has stopped from becoming a reality. Potential discovery as the net of lies and deceit they weave tightens ratchets up the tension.

There are strong performances from Tom McKay as Rafe, a man trapped in an unhappy marriage but too hamstrung by religious belief to do anything about it, and by Mark Meadows as John Hall, apparently oblivious to the perished state of his marriage.

Derek Hutchinson is excellent as the sly vicar-general, Max Bennett brings some welcome comic relief in his early scenes as Lane, David Glover puffs up nicely as the benign Bishop and Lauren Adamson makes her mark as the maid.

And Ben Stones' beautifully authentic set looks as though it has been lifted straight from a Stratford-upon-Avon tourism guide, leading one member of the audience to declare that she had taken tea on that terrace only last summer.

  • The Herbal Bed runs until February 23.

Lesley Bates