Shakespeare in America
By Elsa Johnson & Victor Lucas
We went to see Great Lakes Theatre Festival’s production of As You Like It. We liked it. Read the following article and learn why we liked it, how much we liked it, and how likely you are to like it. Or, dear reader, scroll down and click on the link for tickets so you can see this pretty sweet show for yourself.
But you must brace yourselves. A blast from a factory whistle is the first sound as the lights come up on act one scene one. Smoke. Noise. This AYLI is set “in New England in the midst of the second Industrial Revolution, not long after the start of the 20th century,” explains Director Edward Morgan in his program note. That would be 1900 until 1914. The 1% who have inherited wealth and privilege from the Robber Barons of the Gilded Age are sitting pretty; the rest of the population — including Rosalind and Orlando — not so much. Shakespeare’s play and American history match up pretty well in that way.
Costume Designer Kim Sorenson dressed the women in the cast as Gibson Girls and Suffragettes. When Rosalind and Orlando run away to the Forest of Arden they are, the Director’s notes explain, in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in the company of the good Duke and his followers, among true rustics and would-be followers of Transcendentalism in their tweeds and gaiters, Bushy Beards and all.
Don’t get us wrong. A play is neither a history lesson nor a jaunt with Mr. Peabody and Sherman in the WABAC machine. No transposition of time and place is perfect but a well-realized production rewards a playgoer’s knowledge of time and place. The more we learn about New England in 1900 the more sense this production makes.
We wish we had Music Director Nathan Motta’s play list. We suspect that he has gone to unusual pains and limited himself to Victorian songs and early jazz written and played before 1915, an obscure period because recording technology was still primitive. Barber shop quartet. Scott Joplin. Jelly Roll Morton. How easy and how sloppy it would have been to have used music from the 20’s and 30’s!
Choreographer Martin Céspedes wins our applause for his dances throughout the show, especially his period-appropriate arrangement of Grizzly Bear! And while you’re at it, shed a tear for the inhibited Brits, Daisy and Thomas of Downton Abbey, trying to follow in the ursine footsteps of their American cousins.
AYLI is full of terrific roles and GLTF’s actors have found funny, endearing portrayals. Betsy Mugavero and Torsten Johnson as Rosalind and Orlando, the romantic leads, both rang true in their roles with Mugavero believable as she fell in love in a nanosecond and hilarious as she fainted repeatedly at the sight of blood despite her masculine disguise.
David Anthony Smith had the quiet presence necessary for a truly melancholy Jaques who nevertheless got laughs for his commitment to his lines.
I can suck melancholy out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs. More, I prithee, more.
Dustin Tucker as Touchstone the court fool delivered his lines with manic energy along with tons of well-executed business, literally tap dancing his way through Retort Courteous and Reproof Valiant up to the seventh cause.
Christine Weber as Rosalind’s cousin Celia made a smashing Gibson Girl. Atlie Gilbert as a larger-than-life Audrey was a match for Tucker’s Touchstone.
There are no small roles as demonstrated by Jodi Dominick whose Phoebe had reasons for what she did, though she’s not telling.
We’d like to offer a special award for breath control to Juan Rivera Lebron whose lovelorn shepherd cried “Phoebeeeeeeeee” as he ran out through the house.
You can’t have a play without conflict and that means actors who can project palpable menace — J. Todd Adams as evil brother Oliver and Dougfred Miller as evil Duke Frederick — and a fight choreographer — Ken Merckx — who can create the credible illusion of violence live.
As You Like It runs through Saturday 4/19 at the Hanna Theatre. Tickets $15 – $70; Students $13. Click here or phone 216-241-6000.
[Photo by Roger Mastroianni]
From CoolCleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.
Cleveland, OH 44115