Through Sat 2/20
We went to see some Shakespeare on Fri 2/12, The Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Helen. It was the final production of the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House (CWRU/CPH) MFA Acting Program, class of 2016, a valedictory for the actors after their three-year course of study. And was it the debut as well of a new thespian talent? A canine ingénue?
As a text, The Two Gentlemen of Verona is said to suffer from an underwritten heroine and an implausible happy ending, but it also stakes out territory that Shakespeare successfully reworked throughout his career. Never mind love triangles; here we have a tangled hexagon of love and friendship, family obligations and infidelity. In Julia (Katie O. Solomon) we have the first of Shakespeare’s heroines to disguise herself as a boy in order to pursue her true love. In Speed (Nick Barbato) and Launce (Rickie McDowell) we have the first of many servant/clown roles. Every playwright has to start somewhere — this is possibly Shakespeare’s earliest surviving comedy — but with The Two Gentlemen of Verona Shakespeare hit the ground running.
In its costumes and musical choices, this production seems to be thinking of Cinecittà Studios in the 1950s and 1960s, Hollywood on the Tiber. Making allowances for the modest budget that costume designer Esther M. Haberlen must have worked with, we were reminded of Roman Holiday (1953) with its Oscar-winning costumes by Edith Head. Or Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1961), both because of the costumes and the disco dancing (the twist!). Other musical choices (credit sound designer Richard Ingram) that further anchored this production in the 1950s and 1960s included a recording of “Volare” from 1958 that signaled the intermission and a live doo wop quartet version of Shakespeare’s song:
“Who is Sylvia? What is she? That all our swains commend her?”
An arsenal of wigs (Wigs and Whiskers) makes it possible for eight (human) actors to play all 16 roles. Sweet, feminine Julia and Sylvia (Kathryn Metzger) and smart-mouth servant Lucetta (Megan King) are transformed by their wigs and costumes into ruthless motorcycle outlaws. The macho Duke (Jeremiah Clapp) transforms himself with the aid of a white wig into the cultured Eglamour. Is our canine ingénue, Queenie, who plays Crab, Launce’s dog, the only actor in this production who never wears a wig?
When Proteus (Alec Hynes) sees Sylvia it’s love at first sight. Does Shakespeare ever let it happen any other way? The play turns on Proteus’ decision to betray his friend Valentine (Jay Ben Markson) and Julia, the girl who loves him, in order to win Sylvia’s heart. Contemptable Proteus! He’s apparently never heard the phrase “bros before hoes.” Not that Sylvia is having any; in a satisfying scene in the garden underneath Sylvia’s window (that prefigures a similar setting in Romeo and Juliet), Proteus tries to woo Sylvia but she shoots him down with devastating finality.
So, who is Sylvia and is her part underwritten? Unfair as it may seem, if the actor who portrays Sylvia projects a sufficiently glamorous aura, everything is plausible. Notice that director Paul Mullins stages this Sylvia’s first speech in a way that adds considerably to her aura; he has her hounded by paparazzi and hovered over by groupies. And Sylvia also gets the best-looking, most period-appropriate dresses, sunglasses and wigs in this production, as is appropriate for the daughter of the duke of sophisticated Milan. Who is Sylvia? She is a wealthy celebrity close to the seat of political power. No wonder that whenever she speaks she’s decisive and commands respect.
But another mystery confounds us. Why do audiences find Queenie and other canine thespians so charming, so endlessly engaging? Explain it to us, please.
Two Gentlemen of Verona runs through Sat 2/20 at the Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre at PlayhouseSquare. Tickets are $20. Call 216-241-6000 go to clevelandplayhouse.com.
[Written by Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas]Cleveland, OH 44115