FAIR EM Union Theatre

The only reason this Elizabethan romantic comedy, circa 1590, is getting a revival is that it was wrongly attributed to Shakespeare by King Charles II’s librarian. Nobody today thinks Shakespeare wrote this awful script. There are two plots. Em, a noble’s daughter in disguise, is courted by three suitors. She pretends to be blind and deaf to deter two of them. William the Conqueror thinks he is marrying a beautiful Swedish princess but is tricked into marrying the Danish king’s dead-common daughter. The characterisation is nil and the production and the performances are at a poor pantomime level.