Eternal Equinox of A Midsummer Dream

This will have to be a two-parter.

Chapter 1, Wherein I Meetup with Shakespeare Explorers

... for a Kennedy Center performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Bristol Old Vic and the Handspring Puppet Company (who previously collaborated on War Horse).

This was the second Midsummer I've seen with the Explorers, and the two productions really only shared Mr. Shakespeare's text. That's the thing about dreams--always open to interpretation, reinterpretation, new visions, and new magic. While much of the success of any Midsummer begins and ends with the antics of Bottom the Ass (and BOV's Miltos Yerolemou displayed a wondrously versatile ass), so many aspects of this production were so extraordinary that it was impossible to refrain from standing up and cheering.

Via Kennedy Center

My favorite innovation here was the multi-actor/appliance casting of Puck. As a sprite, Puck was depicted coming and going in a most ephemeral way--with each of three actors bearing pieces of his being (assorted gardening tools) coming together and flying apart.

A wonderful time at the theater with some great folks to talk to, before and after. And that wasn't even the most exciting part of the night for me.


Chapter 2, Wherein I Make another Connection to Edward Duke

So this is also the second time in recent months I got to meet someone who once worked with Edward. (For the story of the first, which happened last December, go here and scroll to my brief encounter with Keith Baxter.)

During the intermission of last night's show, I was chatting with one of my Meetuppers about the musical she is writing--not a professional work, she caveated, but something that captured her imagination to the extent of having completed the lyrics for five songs.

As sometimes happens in theaters with awkward sightlines and a few available seats closer to the action, a gentleman from farther back asked to take a space next to my friend. So we continued our conversation, including our new neighbor. He volunteered that he, too, was a playwright.

Oh, anything we would have seen around here?

Um, a few ... and on Broadway. (Our amateur eyes lit up.) ... "Crazy for You"...

I literally gasped. I LOVED that!!  It took me a moment to summon the name. KEN???

The gentleman then introduced himself while I was heartily shaking his hand: Ken Ludwig.

Ken Ludwig, photo by Leslie Cashen

As Midsummer's second act began, I couldn't stop searching my memory banks to confirm that this was the playwright of Sullivan and Gilbert, which featured Edward Duke in the role of the stagestruck Alfred, son of Victoria.

So after the performance was over, our standing ovation segueing into heading for the exits, I asked Ken to confirm my memory, which he did. And I got to remind him that it was in fact in this very same theater (the Eisenhower) that his Sullivan and Gilbert was performed. It was the first time I met Edward, who had actually called me up at my office to invite me! (My recap of meeting Edward is here.)

Ken smiled and told me what a sweet man Edward was. They spent a lot of fun times together when the show opened in Toronto. "Very sweet man."

All of this made me very happy. But as it happens, Ken has a further connection with us: Shakespeare!

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Love, hosaa

Always connecting

Juliet and Romeo

Back from yesterday's matinee of Romeo and Juliet at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre on Capitol Hill. It was a tight almost-three-hour afternoon, well paced, and I really really liked the production. Mostly. I have issues.

This is sort of a problem play for me, and the very spunkiness, intelligence, strength, and independence of the strikingly young-seeming actress Erin Weaver as Juliet made the problem all the more vivid. Juliet is too good for Romeo. She's too smart for what happens to her. It's always been a problem to me that Juliet doesn't just go off with Romeo in his banishment.

Erin Weaver, Michael Goldsmith, in Romeo and Juliet. Photo by Teresa Wood for Folger Theatre, via Facebook

Photo by Jeffrey Malet for Folger Theatre, via Facebook

This production gives her a little bit of a reason to stay: fear, in the form of the menacing ferocity of her angered father (played by Brian Dykstra). So maybe the answer is that she's too smart to run away from a father who is that determined to sell her off to his friend. One of the strengths of this production was seeing the growth of this Juliet, from nerdy, bookish little girl with a teddy bear to a passionate bride eager to begin her life as a wife.

But beyond the text (some of which was used for this staging, directed by Erin Weaver's husband, Aaron Posner), I do think that this Juliet was also too good for this Romeo (Michael Goldsmith). Just my opinion, but a feeling shared by a few of the folks in our Meetup group. I wasn't feeling the chemistry, the sense that these two were perfectly matched and meant to be. It's intangible, but there needs to be charisma, and I just didn't feel it from Goldsmith--nor, for that matter, from the Mercutio (Brad Koed) or the Tybalt (Rex Daugherty). I think they performed their roles well, but again, it's an intangible something I missed.

My eyes (and ears) went to the amazing Eric Hissom, portraying the good Friar Lawrence (as well as taking the lines otherwise assigned to the uncast chorus and Prince). He was the ghost-tiger at Round House last season in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.

Eric Hissom, via Maryland Theatre Guide

Cast, Romeo and Juliet. Eric Hissom, center. Photo by Jeffrey Malet for Folger Theatre, via Facebook

What a presence! What a voice!



So this brings me to the other "issue" I had with this production. I didn't mind the edits to the text, though I thought the accompanying exhibit out in the Folger Library's great hall was kind of funny: Titled "Here Is a Play Fitted," it seemed to be one great justification for abridging Shakespeare. There's even an exchange of letters between an actor and another early 20th-century theatrical type (producer?) agreeing that it is not possible to perform Shakespeare as written. (Excuse me?)

I'm not opposed to choices made in deference to exhausted audience members with short attention spans. The lines delivered were deliberate, clear, and clarifying. Scenes then overlapped one another, keeping the production tight and lively. So I never missed all that much of the excised text. Until the last lines.

I imagine there are few people attending a production of Romeo and Juliet willingly who don't know that the Prince is supposed to come out at the end and tell them that the tale of woe they just saw was a tale of woe. Yes, it's like, duh: Romeo takes poison in a brash romantic gesture to his dead love, only to recoil in horrific pain at the reality of that choice. Juliet then rashly thrusts the dagger into her own breast, making the same romantic choice, and likewise recoiling in horrific pain. The reality was obvious, so the recap by the Prince probably is superfluous.

But from a practical, audience point of view, that slow, silent fade out deprived me of that glorious voice of Eric Hissom one last time. I felt cheated. It also meant I didn't know when to applaud. Yes, you do need to cue the audience. Duh.

As I said, I really really liked this show. My criticisms are minor. Well, except for the last lines. I really wanted those:

A glooming peace this morning with it brings.
The sun for sorrow will not show his head.
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd;
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
Folger Theatre (Washington, DC), October 15-December 1, 2013
Directed by Aaron Posner

Cast:
Juliet: Erin Weaver
Romeo: Michael Goldsmith
Friar Lawrence: Eric Hissom (also fight captain)
Nurse: Sarah Holt (understudy for Sherri L. Edelen)
Mercutio: Brad Koed
Tybalt: Rex Daugherty
Benvolio: Aaron Bliden
Lord Capulet: Brian Dykstra
Lady Capulet: Shannon Koob
Lord Montague: Allen McCullough
Lady Montague: Michele Osherow
Paris: Joe Mallon
Balthazar/Peter/Friar John: Matthew McGee

Production credits:
Composer: Carla Kihlstedt
Scenic design: Meghan Raham
Costume design: Laree Lentz
Lighting design: Jennifer Schriever
Sound design: Christopher Baine
Fight director: Casey Dean Kaleba
Dramaturg: Michele Osherow

eta ~ funny how I just now noticed that dramaturg Michele Osherow also played Lady Montague. She wrote in a nice bit of business for herself. I never remembered that Lady Montague dies before the end of the play. The textual reference to it must have been in the masses of words left on the cutting room floor. Here, the character is shown pouring poison into her own wine cup and drinking it, then joining the ghosts of Tybalt and Mercutio (and later, Paris) on the platform above the surviving characters, overseeing their actions. I thought it was a great staging.

The Darks and Lights of Winter

The Winter's Tale at Shakespeare Theatre Company is a rocky rollercoaster ride of emotions, beginning with the king's irrational jealousy.

In my opinion, the production relied a little too heavily on the lighting to show Leontes's (Mark Harelik) inner turmoil--the actor could convey it just fine. But unlike Othello, Leontes has no one feeding him bad information about his divinely warm (and very pregnant) wife, Hermione (Hannah Yelland). So Harelik's fiercely uncompromising passion in throwing away this wife (along with her son and the daughter to come) made the character almost wholly unlikable.

Hannah Yelland as Hermione, Mark Harelik as Leontes and Sean Arbuckle as Polixenes in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of 'The Winter’s Tale', directed by Rebecca Taichman. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

The darkness of Act I is a stark contrast to the lightness of pastoral Act II--and in this production, the transition between those contrasts is eased at the end of the first act with the abrupt and very funny image of the gloriously goofy Clown (Tom Story) crossing upstage, running and screaming like a frightened child.

If you've been here before, you already know about my obsession fascination with Tom Story. 

Tom Story via About the Artists

I realize I haven't seen all he's done, but I love his ability to mold that serene moon face into a range of expressions. From the first act seriousness of a palace aid (Cleomenes) without much to do except look serious, he transmogrified into the happily clueless son-of-a-shepherd, oblivious to the pickpocketing rogue Autolycus (the other half of Harelik dual-role assignment).

Actually, a very funny bit between them ensued during the IDR (invited dress rehearsal) when the zipper on Tom's turned-around fanny-pack wouldn't close after Autolycus stole the money in it. As Autolycus pulled and pulled on the stubborn zipper, the young shepherd's obliviousness grew increasingly implausible, and the smile just kept blossoming on his giddy face. At last, Tom moved the plot along with a sweet "You must abandon it, sir." Snort! I hate to say it was my favorite part of the play, but the moment called to mind the best crackups with Harvey Korman and Tim Conway from the Carol Burnett Show. (And it happened again when Tom as clown was imitating the rogue's wildly ridiculous lisp.)

This levity, this lightness, was all in keeping with the pastoral Act II. Sets, costumes, lighting all conveyed such contrasting warmth against Act I's frosty shadowy harshness. But the seamlessness of the transitions were as magical as the Queen's rebirth at the end, from discarded wife to treasured love.

Overall the production is as good as it gets at Shakespeare Theatre Company, which is pretty damn good. It did run long, but I imagine an earlier start time than the IDR had will keep people from dropping dead at 11. (Us old people, that is.) 

I thought it was interesting that the staging of this production, with actors not in the scene simply sitting to the side but not going off stage, was so similar to the Wandering Souls' engaging (and economical) 2009 production of The Winter's Tale. The Wanderers' 90-minute production remains one of my favorite Shakespearean experiences ever.

The only thing I would have liked would have been a longer why-I'm-forgiving-you speech from the queen Hermione, but Shakespeare apparently didn't provide one. 

Heather Wood as Perdita, Mark Harelik as Leontes, Hannah Yelland as Hermione and Todd Bartels as Florizel (background) in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of 'The Winter’s Tale', directed by Rebecca Taichman. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

Just another one of those irrational emotions the Bard gives his characters and expects the audience to accept. But as I said, Harelik's Leontes was so thoroughly irrationally enraged with jealousy that I personally couldn't have loved him after such abuse. Just me?

The Winter's Tale, Lansburgh Theatre, opens May 14, 2013

Director: Rebecca Taichman

Set Designer: Christine Jones

Costume Designer: David Zinn

Lighting Designer: Christopher Akerlind

Cast:

Mark Harelik (Leontes, King of Sicilia; Autolycus, a rogue)

Hannah Yelland (Hermione, Queen of Sicilia)

Sean Arbuckle (Polixenes, King of Bohemia)

Heather Wood (Mamillius, Prince of Sicilia; Perdita, Princess of Sicilia)

Brent Carver (Camillo)

Ted van Griethuysen (Antigonus; old shepherd)

Nancy Robinette (Paulina; drunken shepherdess)

Tom Story (Cleomenes; young shepherd, a clown)

Todd Bartels (Dion; Florizel, Prince of Bohemia)

White Hot Coriolanus

Back from the Shakespeare Theatre Company's IDR for Coriolanus at Sidney Harman Hall, and it's a stunning production.

As the ferocious warrior-aristocrat-traitor, Patrick Page is part Russell Crowe in Gladiator, part Alan Rickman in Die Hard, and part James Cagney in White Heat--the latter most especially brought to mind in scenes with mother Volumnia, who is played with Luponesque Mama Rose intensity by Diane D'Aquila.

I'm continuing my love affair with local stagecraft and singing praises of this production's costumes (designed by Murell Horton) and of the battle scenes evoked by a "chorus" of drummers (fight director  is Rick Sordelet; lead drummer and percussion coach is Philip Dickerson).

The IDR program is a plain-vanilla handout without actor bios; the only name I recognized from previous productions was Nick Dillenburg, one of "Two Gents" (Proteus) who in Coriolanus is one of the two tribunal representatives of the Roman citizens. Oddly, this character is played as kind of a nerd; Dillenburg is listed as an understudy for Coriolanus, pretty much the opposite. Well, having seen his bloody Proteus, I think Nick can handle it if Page wears himself out from his white-hot performance.

STC is pushing heavily for audiences to see both Coriolanus and their production of Schiller's Wallenstein, in a dramaturgical consideration of the "hero-traitor." My IDR friend is seeing the Wall but I'm giving it a pass. Seeing both in the same week as my forthcoming visit with Dolly at Ford's is just too much cognitive dissonance. Or something.

Coriolanus, previews March 28, opens April 9, 2013
directed by David Muse
Set designer: Blythe R.D. Quinlan
Lighting designer: Mark McCullough

Cast
Caius Martius, later Coriolanus: Patrick Page
Volumnia (his mother): Diane D'Aquila
Virgilia (his wife): Aaryn Kopp
Young Martius (his son): Hunter Zane
Menenius Aggripa: Robert Sicular
Cominius: Steve Pickering
Titus Lartius: Nick Dillenburg
Junius Brutus: Philip Goodwin
Sicinius Velutus: Derrick Lee Weeden
Tullus Aufidius: Reginald Andre Jackson

Mid-November's Midsummer

Back from (well, last night) A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare Theatre Company's lovely Sidney Harman Hall. It was an official Meet-Up selection of the DC area Shakespeare Explorers group, and the lovely Rosa Mexicano next door offered us a congenial meal and a chance to discuss, not all things Shakespeare, but some things Shakespeare, plus a little Lincoln and politics and parking and other what-nots.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to talk about the performance afterwards. I was up in the cheap seats mezzanine, my pick-up companions scattered as ticket-buying options allowed them, and my real goal at the end of any evening out is to get home. That meant rushing to the subway across the street in the hope of catching a train quickly; missing one means adding another 20 minutes or so to the journey home.

So what I really loved right away about this production was the design (kudos to Lee Savage, set designer, and Jennifer Moeller, costume designer). I thought the choice of a post-war aesthetic for the "real" people brought the story up to a more approachable time, and the shabby burlesque-theater aesthetic for the fairy kingdom was just really interesting. It reinforced the "all the world's a stage" idea that runs throughout Shakespeare, and underscored Puck's end speech about the play being but a dream. Or maybe our dreams are but a play. I just liked it.

Of course, then I had a funny dream afterwards, wherein one of my Meet-up chums left me a hastily scribbled note after the play, not having the opportunity to discuss it. The note just said "Nooooo!"

See, that's why I don't necessarily like to read reviews. It depresses me to be disagreed with. I have no idea what the reviewers are going to make of this odd staging, but I thought it was brilliant. And to give you an idea of how fully I buy into whatever I'm seeing, I didn't even realize that the same actor and actress (Tim Campbell and Sara Topham) played both the real-life royals (Theseus and Hippolyta) and the fairy royals (Oberon and Titania).

Tim Campbell and Sara Topham, in rehearsal.

Photo courtesy of Shakespeare Theatre Company

In the Nov. 9 issue of the STC's Asides newsletters about this production, Shakespeare scholar David Bevington writes about the transformations that happen during the course of the play: "The motif of transformation is inherently theatrical, calling attention to its own devices of impersonation and rapid changing of roles, for the delight of audiences and of the actors themselves."

So calling attention to the inherently theatrical experience by setting the play in a theater makes a lot of sense. Not bad for a play that's all nonsense! *g*

A Midsummer Night's Dream plays through December 30 at Sidney Harman Hall.
Directed by Ethan McSweeny

Cast:
Tim Campbell: Theseus/Oberon
Sara Topham: Hippolyta/Titania
Adam Green: Puck/Philostrate
Robert Beitzel: Lysander
Amelia Pedlow: Hermia
Christiana Clark: Helena
Chris Myers: Demetrius
Bruce Dow: Bottom
Ted van Griethuysen: Quince
David Graham Jones: Flute
Herschel Sparber: Snout
Robert Dorfman: Snug
Christopher Bloch: Robin Starveling
Lawrence Redmond: Egeus (Hermia's father)
Nancy Anderson: First Fairy
Maxwell Balay, Rohan Saxena (alternating): Changeling Boy

David Graham Jones (kneeling) and Bruce Dow rehearse as Flute and Bottom.

Photo courtesy of Shakespeare Theatre Company