STC's Merry Wives of Harlem

Nick Rashad Burroughs (center), Felicia Curry, Jordan Barbour, Sekou Laidlow, and JaBen Early in The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo: Teresa Castracane

No one is likely to claim that Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is sacrosanct. Few would complain about updating the play's action to our era; in fact, freshening up this somewhat homely farce could be an improvement. Playwright Jocelyn Bioh has moved the action from the town of Windsor, outside London, to 116th Street in the midst of Harlem, with the Fords running a laundromat and the Pages a hair-braiding salon. Bioh, who grew up in Washington Heights as the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, jettisons much of the original text in favor of authentic evocation of various black dialects. Shakespeare Theatre Company has brought this version to Washington, seen Friday evening.

Leading a cast of mostly company debuts, Oneika Phillips and Felicia Curry play Madam Ekua Page and Madam Nkechi Ford, respectively, the former of Ghanaian origin and the latter of Nigerian descent. Like Shakespeare's wives, they rule the roost, but Bioh has soft-pedaled or eliminated most of the original sexist language. While the women proved consistently funny and entertaining, Nick Rashad Burroughs's over-the-top jealousy as Mister Nduka Ford, stole the show with his antic bluster. His alter-ego as Brook, costumed as a dreadlocked Rastafari with an outlandish Jamaican accent, was a highlight. JaBen Early’s more sedate Mister Kwame Page receded into the background as a result.

Last week, STC announced that the originally cast Falstaff, Lance Coadie Williams, had to withdraw from the production for personal reasons. Happily, Jacob Ming-Trent, who created the role in the New York premiere, recorded and broadcast on PBS's Great Performances, and is familiar from Watchmen and other television shows, stepped in. A sort of Fat Albert with a propensity for crooning like Barry White, his Falstaff seemed more absurd than abhorrent, which helped to lighten the often mean-spirited vengeance of Shakespeare’s play. Bioh reduced the fat knight’s trio of henchmen to just one, Pistol, played with confidence by Bru Aju, a strong contradiction to his dual role as the cowardly Slender.

The Welsh parody of Sir Hugh Evans becomes a Liberian pastor (the genial Sekou Laidlow), while the foppish Doctor Caius, given to self-important French affectations, is ingeniously transformed into an eccentric doctor of Senegalese origin. As strongly hinted at through the fey characterization of Jordan Barbour, he is only too happy to end up married to a man in the final scene in Windsor (Morningside?) Park.

Kelli Blackwell’s fast-talking Mama Quickly did her best to advance the causes of all three suitors for the hand of the Pages’ daughter, Anne (Peyton Rowe). Fenton, cross-dressed as a woman and played earnestly by Latoya Edwards, won this competition only by subterfuge but was welcomed into the family. Howard University-trained Rebecca Celeste earned the evening’s broadest laughs as the laundry worker who had to push the cart of foul clothes in which Falstaff escaped Ford’s jealous rage.

Anchoring the musical part of the ensemble was Shaka Zu, who led some call-and-response improvisations with the audience, aided by a conga drum. The Windsor Park fairy scene was memorably transformed into an African masquerade, complete with colorful masks and raffia skirts (choreography by Ashleigh King). The sets, designed cleverly by Lawrence E. Moten III, evoked a row of Harlem shopfronts, with colorful African-inspired costumes designed by Ivania Stack to divert the eyes even more.

The Merry Wives of Windsor runs through October 5. shakespearetheatre.org

STC recasts "Comedy of Errors" as even goofier musical

Alex Brightman and David Fynn as the Dromios in The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo: Teresa Castracane Photography

The Comedy of Errors is the slenderest of Shakespeare plays, and it is generally a good idea to give its convoluted plot and mostly physical jokes a boost. Simon Godwin, artistic director of Shakespeare Theatre Company, has turned to popular music again for his new production of this early play, an approach tried before, at least since the 18th century. Scottish composer Michael Bruce has supplied music, complete with some antic full-cast dance numbers, this in a script that originally, unlike last season's As You Like It, actually has no songs in it. A note to those who like to dash out of shows early -- this staging is like Mamma Mia, which came back to the Kennedy Center this summer, with one more groovy dance bit tacked on to the end of the play that you won't want to miss.

The action takes place in Ephesus, where an aged man from Siracusa in Sicily has run afoul of the local police. He explains to the Duke that he lost two of his four children -- two twin sons, both named Antipholus, and two twin orphan boys he adopted as their servants, both named Dromio -- years ago in a shipwreck and seeks them in Ephesus. The son and his servant from Siracusa have just arrived separately to search for their lost siblings, but little do they know that the other Antipholus and Dromio are living in Ephesus. In a long and rather improbable series of mishaps, they happen to cross paths with their doppelgangers and, since neither servant can tell the master from his twin and vice-versa, hilarity ensues.

Godwin's decision to cast Alex Brightman and David Fynn as the two Dromios made it hard even for the audience to distinguish them from one another. Both men played Dewey Finn (the role created by Jack Black in the film version of School of Rock) in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation of the movie, one on Broadway and the other in London's West End. Both men brought some of that character's nerdy zaniness to their roles, often adding off-the-cuff spoken or sung lines. The two Antipholi, Ralph Adriel Johnson and Christian Thompson, did not resemble one another in the same uncanny way, but the play does not suffer for this lack of realism.

The other high point was the lead actresses, Shayvawn Webster as the sharp-tongued Adriana, wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, and Cloteal L. Horne as her sister Luciana, who brought a modern edge to the disappointment of the women in the behavior of the men around them. Amanda Naughton made an over-the-top Abbess in the closing scenes, and Eric Hissom had his best moments as the absurd Doctor Pinch (he was also Duke Solinus). The supporting cast had some roles changed slightly, like the goldsmith Angela (Pearl Rhein) instead of Angelo, and the Courtesan of Kimberly Dodson now named Thaisa. Most of these actors doubled as a walking pit band, led by music director Paige Rammelkamp and associate music director Jacob Brandt.

Sets and costumes (designed by Ceci Calf and Alejo Vietti, respectively) evoke the updated setting of a Mediterranean city in the 1990s, "before the invention of the cell phone," as the program synopsis notes -- something like a mix of Miami Vice and Clueless. The manic pace of the show is amplified by its physicality: several dance numbers (choreography by Nancy Renee Braun) and one hilarious sword fight (fight choreography by Robb Hunter) keep things fairly breathless.

The Comedy of Errors has been extended through October 20, at the Klein Theatre. shakespearetheatre.org

Cast in The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo: Teresa Castracane Photography

Simon Godwin's modern-dress 'Macbeth' comes to Washington

Indira Varma and Ralph Fiennes in Macbeth, Shakespeare Theatre Company.
Photo: Marc Brenner

The demand for the Shakespeare Theatre Company's new production of Macbeth has reportedly been off the charts. Simon Godwin, artistic director of STC since 2019, directed this staging in Liverpool, Edinburgh, and London, and it makes its final stop here. In each city, the venue has not been a traditional theater, but a larger building like a warehouse, adapted to the purpose. In Washington, theater-goers must make their way to the former campus of Black Entertainment Television headquarters in the Brentwood neighborhood of Northeast. The cast, starring Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma, has remained the same in each location.

To reach the stage, viewers pass through a room made to look like a modern war zone, with the wreck of a bombed-out car and the glow of fires. Even before the show begins, actors costumed like soldiers patrol the space. The action unfolds not in medieval Scotland, but in a 21st-century location torn apart by warfare. Through the sometimes overwhelming sound system, which surrounds the audience, the sonic boom of jet fighters and explosions punctuates the evening (sound design by Christopher Shutt). Macbeth and the other thanes and soldiers wore military fatigues, tactical vests, and helmets while in the field. In the court scenes, they wore elegant gowns, suits, and dress military uniforms with a faintly fascist edge, at times reminiscent of the updated Richard III starring Ian McKellen from over twenty years ago.

The technical bells and whistles are impressive, but other than the battle scenes at the opening and close, the Scottish play is really about private ambitions: it hardly matters where or when the war is happening. The adaptation by Emily Burns streamlines some parts of the play without removing most of the best parts. The three witches (Lucy Mangan, Danielle Fiamanya, and Lola Shalam) appear out of one of several loud explosions, looking like victims of an urban bombing mission who have narrowly escaped death and bear the psychic trauma of it. Bright lights often assist their covert entrances and exits, as Godwin's staging walks a fine line between the witches being supernatural powers or just shell-shocked ghosts.

Photo: Marc Brenner

Ralph Fiennes plays the title role older and a little more seasoned and wise. His Macbeth has been worn down by age, as well as by the demanding nature of his wife, played with vehement force by Indira Varma. Younger than her husband, Lady Macbeth drives him where his ambition might not have taken him. She spurs him beyond the life of a sort of dutiful also-ran in the service of Duncan to grasp at the throne after hearing the strange prophecies of the women harmed by his own military exploits.

If the supernatural business is downplayed a bit (no Hecate appears in the final prophecy scene), the physical elements of violence are amplified: much blood from the murder of Duncan, and even more from the onstage killing of Banquo, among the most graphic stagings in recent memory. Steffan Rhodri's Banquo proved a highlight, an older veteran of many battles by Macbeth's side, with the grim humor to show for it. Ben Turner had the most affecting moments of the evening, drawing out the paternal grief of Macduff as he learned of the murder of his family.

Macbeth runs through May 5. A filmed version will be released in theaters starting on May 2.

Shakespeare Theatre's Age of Aquarius Beatles Musical ('As You Like It')

Jennifer Lines (center) and cast in As You Like It, Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo: Teresa Castracane Photography

Shakespeare Theatre Company is offering its own cheery December production, in answer to all the Nutcrackers and Messiahs and carol sing-alongs, to drive away the winter doldrums. It has revived an updating of Shakespeare's As You Like It, set in the 1960s and first conceived by Daryl Cloran for Vancouver's Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival. Seen Wednesday evening at Harman Hall, this antic, technicolor production weaves together a critical mass of Beatles songs, often just salient excerpts, with the Shakespeare text. The grafting process required some heavy cuts to the play, which could be a plus or a minus, depending on your disposition.

The updating works best in the Forest of Arden, where the exiled Duke's lines about life in the woods do sound convincingly like something a hippie might say: "And this our life, exempt from public haunt, / Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, / Sermons in stones, and good in everything." Life is groovy, man, and nature is our university. The tie-dye brightness of a VW bus as backdrop and the band's costumes bring Woodstock to mind. The Dukes, the older usurped in rule by the younger, become Dames, both played convincingly by Jennifer Lines: the usurper as an establishment figure, costumed like Jackie Kennedy, and the elder a long-haired flower child. The decision to amp up the wrestling bit in Act I into a WWE extravaganza, expanded into a preshow entertainment, while fun (with exciting fight direction by Jonathan Hawley Purvis, complete with believable piledrivers), tired long before it was over.

Various 60s types are evoked in the costuming of the characters (colorful costume design by Carmen Alatorre): Orlando, turned into a loveable spaz by Jeff Irving, channels Elvis in his dance numbers; Kayvon Khoshkam's Touchstone wears glittery sunglasses and elevator shoes, a combination of Elton John and Austin Powers; Chelsea Rose's Rosalind and Naomi Ngebulana's Celia sport beehive hairstyles like Natalie Wood; Andrew Cownden's downer Jaques seems like a mash-up of a beat poet and Andy Warhol. The whole affair, kept at a jumpy tempo by Cloran's direction, has the attention span you might expect from an episode of Laugh-In.

If your idea of fun is sitting through two and a half hours of Beatles karaoke, you will surely enjoy the evening. The Forest of Arden has a cover band, made up also of cast members, under the musical direction of Ben Elliott, who plays the country rube Silvius with adorable backwardness. The singing is of varied quality, with the best song of the twenty-three (!) songs turning out to be "Let It Be," sung beautifully by Evan Rein as Amiens and with soft harmony from others in the cast. Audience participation is encouraged, with the cast pausing just long enough mid-lyric for someone in the house to supply a word that everyone knew should be next. Shakespeare included a number of celebrated songs in As You Like It, set by numerous composers over the centuries. This perhaps helps to justify turning it into a musical pastiche, but it is a shame to lose all the Shakespeare songs in the process.

Few would argue that As You Like It is one of the bard's best plays, but if you are expecting to hear all of your favorite scenes, you may be disappointed. The most famous speech, Jacques's "All the World's a Stage," survives the cuts, a rare sober moment as recited by the grumpy Andrew Cownden in what is otherwise a noisy performance continually undercut by pop song interruptions. In the scene in which characters roast Orlando's painfully sophomoric poetry ("If a hart do lack a hind, / Let him seek out Rosalind"), the doggerel is switched out for some of the more insipid lines from Beatles songs. That this works, more or less, is not exactly a strong argument for replacing so many of Shakespeare's words with Beatles songs.

As You Like It runs through January 7. shakespearetheatre.org

MacMillan "Romeo and Juliet" returns to the Kennedy Center at last

Herman Cornejo in Romeo and Juliet, American Ballet Theater. Photo: Rosalie O’Connor
Some fine versions of Sergei Prokofiev's beloved ballet Romeo and Juliet have appeared in Washington over the years: the Mariinsky Ballet in 2007, with Leonid Lavrovsky's Soviet-era choreography (also on DVD), and Julie Kent's revival of John Cranko's choreography for Washington Ballet in 2018, among others. Until this week's visit by American Ballet Theater, however, that company's classic staging by Kenneth MacMillan had eluded me. Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev premiered it for the Royal Ballet, and then American Ballet Theater took it up for the first time in 1985, here at the Kennedy Center. This handsome production is back after a twenty-year absence, and the Kennedy Center Opera House, for a short time spared from the onslaught of Broadway musicals that have infested it, was filled to the brim to see it Friday night.

Kevin McKenzie and Susan Jaffe

Any time that American Ballet Theater comes to Washington, they are worth seeing, especially since Miss Ionarts and I missed their most recent production, last year's Don Quixote. Even more so since this is their first visit under the company's new artistic director, former prima ballerina Susan Jaffe. The much-missed critic Sarah Kaufman first advocated for ABT to appoint Misty Copeland to that position but then admitted that Jaffe could be the one to bring the company into the 21st century. It is a homecoming for Jaffe, who hails from Bethesda and has recalled that her first performance at the Kennedy Center was "when I was a child for the New York City Ballet as a big bug in A Midsummer Night’s Dream."

As it turns out, dancing Juliet at the second performance of ABT's Romeo and Juliet at the Kennedy Center in 1985 was one Susan Jaffe, paired with none other than Kevin McKenzie, her predecessor as ABT artistic director. Critic Alan M. Kriegsman noted of Jaffe's performance "a wonderful spectral quality in the duet she reluctantly dances with Paris in the last act," which seemed to resonate in that scene this time around as well.

ABT is fielding different principal dancers for each performance this week, a tribute to the depth of their bench. Last night's Romeo, the veteran Argentinian dancer Herman Cornejo, brought vast experience and emotion to the character. MacMillan demands remarkable strength from the dancer in this role, and Cornejo provided it through many lifts, sword fights, and athletic moves, seeming to flag just slightly only once during a long overhead lift in the first act. The evening's Juliet, Georgia-born Cassandra Trenary, has made noteworthy supporting appearances since joining the company in 2011. Her appointment to principal dancer came in 2020, and she made her debut in this ballet's title role last summer. She ravished the eyes, bursting with teenage energy and leggy awkwardness, floating en pointe as she backed away from unwelcome encounters with the tall, handsome Paris of Andrii Ishchuk. Her athletic strength allowed her to remain fixed in place in her many elegant lifts, as if we were seeing her as she saw herself flying in her dreams.


The muscular Mercutio of rising dancer Tyler Maloney led the supporting cast, abetted in his stylish combats with Joo Won Ahn's haughty Tybalt by the equally comic Benvolio of Luis Ribagorda. MacMillan went for the full Renaissance treatment in this ballet, with the dancers' bodies often weighed down with tapestry-like costumes and the action unfolding before candelabrae and lanterns on the dark-hued set (all designed by Nicholas Georgiadis). The crowd scenes filled the stage, both the heavy-handed court dances of the Capulet ball and the jealousy-laced street scenes, in which the sassy three harlots of Luciana Paris, Erica Lall, and Hannah Marshall sizzled.

Principal conductor Charles Barker, who often took the podium for Washington Ballet in the late, lamented Julie Kent era, presided over a fine rendition of Prokofiev's electric score. If there were a few intonation lapses in the string sections, fine solo work came from the dueling mandolin players, Neil Gladd and David Evans, and tenor saxophonist Dana Booher, guest spots that add remarkable color to the orchestration. The violent slashes of the Dance of the Knights and the biting fortissimo crush of the loudest moments, like the death of Tybalt at the end of Act II, were thrilling.

Romeo and Juliet runs through February 19. kennedy-center.org

'Timon of Athens' a wonderful problem play at the Folger

Whenever a production of Timon of Athens comes around, you should probably go see it. It is one of the least often mounted of Shakespeare's plays. Its status as one of the "problem plays" is upheld by the current staging at the Folger Theater, seen mid-run on Saturday night.

This play, about a wealthy man brought low by his own prodigal generosity, is difficult to bring off, skirting the traditional qualities of both comedy and tragedy. Without excellent actors, it would be impossible. The Folger is blessed with two excellent performances, beginning with Ian Merrill Peakes in the title role. He was among the best parts of the Folger's production of another rarity, Henry VIII, in 2010. He was able to rivet attention again as a modern Timon, a high-tech mogul whose fear of germs and obsessive-compulsive behavior mean that he does not really connect with or even understand the false friends holding out their hands for his money.

Timon has a beautiful mad speech ("I have a tree, which grows here in my close"), which is excerpted here throughout the second act, to show the character's mind unraveling. The best lines of the play come in Timon's confrontations with the cynical philosopher Apemantus, especially in the second act, played here with bitter delight by Eric Hissom. The two actors jousted happily as the characters traded barbs, the brutal honesty of the philosopher, the only character who speaks the truth to the wealthy Timon, repaid with derision.

Other Reviews: Peter Marks, Shakespeare’s ‘Timon of Athens’ takes a rare Washington bow (Washington Post, May 17) Lauren Landau, Folger's 'Timon Of Athens' Vividly Charts A Rich Man's Fall (DCist, May 30)

The rest of the cast seemed unremarkable for the most part, with the exception of the intense sympathy of Antoinette Robinson's Flavius, Timon's loyal steward. Robert Richmond, who also directed that Henry VIII mentioned above, has updated the action to our own time. Timon's house is a modern building, all neon lights, steel, and video screens: the sets by Tony Cisek wrap around the older beams and pillars of the theater. The only real negative is the use of painfully loud audio feedback sounds, an unnecessary reinforcement of the collapse of Timon's mind.

Timon's flatterers receive their payouts on their smartphones, in the form of diamond-shaped icons reminiscent of virtual currencies like Bitcoin (projections by Francesca Talenti). Richmond, sensing the possible lulls in the action, tarts up many scenes with dance numbers and dumb shows, which reduce the subtle victimization of Timon to something too literal. Still it is the best sort of modernization, showing how relevant Shakespeare's words can be in our world of vapid gratification and one-percenter privilege.

Timon of Athens runs through June 11 at the Folger Theater.

NSO Program 2: Shakespeare at the Symphony (2/3)

Charles T. Downey, Valčuha shows a deft touch with NSO
Washington Classical Review, October 7

Beauty, the Best Advocate

Charles T. Downey, Derek Jacobi and Folger Consort team up for evening of Shakespeare and Purcell
Washington Classical Review, October 2

NSO Program 1: Shakespeare at the Symphony

Conductor Edward Gardner (photo by Benjamin Ealovega)

The National Symphony Orchestra had its season opening gala last weekend. The season really began with a program led by British conductor Edward Gardner, heard at the second performance on Friday night. The concept, Shakespeare at the Symphony, was a perfect excuse to bring together two excellent pieces never before presented by the NSO, Edward Elgar's Falstaff and the suite from William Walton's film score for Laurence Olivier's Henry V.

As Gardner announced before Falstaff he thinks audiences need help following the dramatic action in Elgar's delightful Shakespearean tone poem. To that end, we were invited to follow the story through descriptions on a supertitle screen, and it did enhance the music's effect. Gardner is climbing the ladder of principal guest positions, having served in that capacity with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and now the Bergen Philharmonic. He was able to bring the music to life with decisive ideas and a clear, contained set of gestures. He put the second violin section back with the first violins, moving the violas to the outer right edge of the orchestra. This allowed them to be heard much more clearly, a good idea since both Elgar and Walton gave them important melodies. The sotto voce sound of the string in the robbery scene (as well as of the violas and cellos in the scene in Shallow's orchard) and the hilarious bassoon solos were high points. Concertmaster Nurit Bar-Josef had a wistful, nostalgic sound as Falstaff dreamed of himself as a slender youth.

Other Reviews: Seth Arenstein, NSO opens season with Shakespeare in words and music (Washington Classical Review, September 30) Anne Midgette, NSO starts season with a new face in Shakespeare (Washington Post, September 29)

Elgar's score ends with the death of Falstaff, and the return of Prince Hal's melody indicates that his last thought is of his young friend who has spurned him. Walton's suite begins almost with the mournful passacaglia for Falstaff's death. Top-notch solo playing from English horn and flute stood out, as did more exquisite all-string sound. Before the final movement of the suite, actor Matthew Rauch gave a stirring recitation of Henry V's St. Crispin's Day speech. It led quite naturally to the "Agincourt Song" that concludes the suite, into which Walton incorporated the "Agincourt Carol," an English folk song from the 15th century.

Actors William Vaughan and Audrey Bertaux were less memorable in the balcony scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, staged with him moving among the orchestra musicians and her in the chorister seating above. This led just as aptly into the final selection, Tchaikovsky's fantasy-overture on Romeo and Juliet, which received a performance that really made me like it. It is true that in this piece, Tchaikovsky does not give in to his usual tendency to go on too long, but still Gardner accomplished the near-impossible by making me enthusiastic about a Tchaikovsky symphonic work. The battle scene was well marshaled — all fast, crisp, and aligned — and Gardner never let the potentially soupy bits wallow or drag in the least.

This concert repeats this evening at 8 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

Touring 'Merchant' Makes Quick Visit to D.C.

Jonathan Pryce and Dominic Mafham in The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare's Globe)
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice has proven a burdensome undertaking for some local companies over the past decade. With its anti-Semitic themes and ambiguous hero/villain distinctions, it is a play that requires directors and actors to make clear choices, in order to keep the production from seeming anti-Semitic as a whole. A talented company from Shakespeare’s Globe has brought their touring version, directed by Jonathan Munby, to the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater, and while one does walk away with many questions, there is no trace of pandering, bigotry, or public service announcements.

The play opens with Antonio, a wealthy merchant, and his friend Bassanio. Bassanio, having fallen in love with a beautiful Venetian woman named Portia, needs money to pay his debts. Antonio confesses to being cash-poor but agrees to bond Bassanio’s debt if Bassanio can find a lender. Here we are introduced to Shylock, a wealthy Jewish merchant who, after some back and forth regarding Antonio’s folly in lending out money so freely, agrees to lend Bassonio the needed amount without interest. Shylock does lay one condition upon the agreement, made somewhat in jest: if Bassanio cannot pay back the loan at a determined date, Shylock shall have a pound of Antonio’s flesh. The key to everything is the conflict between Antonio, a Christian, and Shylock, a Jew. As we find out, the debt between them is trivial compared to their personal conflict.

Taking the helm of this production is Jonathan Pryce as Shylock. Pryce, known most recently for his portrayal of the High Sparrow in HBO’s smash hit Game of Thrones, obviously brings name recognition to the production, but more importantly he brings a refreshing take on a complex character. Shylock lives in a world where he is openly spat on, abused, and mocked. He has spent his life in a society not made for him and has still done well in terms of wealth and property. This character is often portrayed with moments of rage and a thirst for revenge, and while slightly two-dimensional, those qualities can work in this play. Knowing that Shylock has lived in a world where he is small and seemingly weak to those around him, Pryce has instead provided a character whose subtle workings and speeches landed without effort, needing only sparing use of excessive volume. When mocked by Antonio, he accepted it with a slight grin. Pryce has transformed a character usually associated with rage and revenge, into a character seeking justice through the simplest forms of logic and legalities. Pryce did provide moments of great anger and lashing out, but because they were limited, they became that much more poignant.

Other Articles: Peter Marks, Jonathan Pryce puts a new stamp on Shylock (Washington Post, July 25) Steve Frank, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ perpetuates vile stereotypes of Jews. So why do we still produce it? (Washington Post, July 28) Charles Isherwood, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ With Extra Fog, Moral and Atmospheric (New York Times, July 24) Marilyn Stasio, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ Starring Jonathan Pryce (Variety, July 24) Catherine Jones, Game of Thrones' Jonathan Pryce on his return to the Liverpool stage (Liverpool Echo, July 6)

Supporting Pryce's Shylock is a fairly talented cast. Rachel Pickup, portraying Portia, provided pace and lightness, while at the same time creating some desperately needed fun moments with her maid Narissa, played by Dorothea Myer-Bennett. When it comes to fun, none in the cast compared to Stefan Adegbola, portraying the servant Launcelot Gobbo. Caught in his own moral dilemma, Adegbola was the play's adrenaline rush. His mastery of the “aside” was a highlight of the evening, except for the unsuspecting audience members who were pulled on stage. Adegbola gave the play a true sense of Shakespearean convention, along with a very strong opening, complete with live music (composed by Jules Maxwell), as actors mingled in the house with no grand announcement over the speakers that the play was starting.

While Act I did drag two-thirds of the way through, the best was truly saved for last where Munby added a scene that doesn’t appear in the text, Shylock's forced baptism. The company processed in as if at the beginning of a Catholic mass, singing Latin with thunderous instrumental support. Shylock, standing center stage in a simple white robe (an ode to the High Sparrow), resisted uttering the Latin phrase “Credo,” signifying he had accepted his new Christian faith. Knowing he must, he barely let the word escape his mouth. As the water was poured over his head, there was no sense of cleansing, as the water instead seemed to burn Shylock to the core. While a simple moment and one all contemporary eyes have seen, this outward sign of Christian faith was transformed into the most tragic form of torture.

The Merchant of Venice continues at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater through Saturday evening. The play runs roughly 3 hours with a 15-minute intermission.

A less than tamed 'Shrew' at STC

Maulik Pancholy (Kate) in Taming of the Shrew (photo courtesy of Shakespeare Theater Company)

In the last few years, local theaters have staged Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew several times. In the fall of 2009, the Shakespeare Theater Company mounted its take on this man-vs-woman “comedy” for its annual “Free for All” production. In 2012 the Folger Shakespeare Library produced a well-received “western” version of this often disagreeable text, winning the 2013 Helen Hayes award for Outstanding Resident Play. Now the Shakespeare Theater Company has a new staging. One might go into the production asking, Why choose this vexing play again?

Upon entering the lobby of Sidney Harman Hall, it became clear that the artistic team sought to bring Shakespearean conventions to the forefront of not only the play, but the entire theater. With the all-male cast wandering the lobby, playing music and conversing with audience members, director Ed Sylvanus Iskandar has succeeded to some extent in creating something like Padua, where the play takes place. As the houselights dim the cast all take part in an opening song providing vocals with live instrumental music on stage. Once the opening number ended, though, the productions lost its focus.

The world of the play is visually glamorous. The inconsistencies, namely in costume design, make it hard for the reality of the play to set in. The scenic designer (Jason Sherwood) offers a clever golden tower on a rotating stage, which allows for simple, seamless transitions and provides choreographer Chase Brock a lovely playground. The actors follow suit with well-paced scene work that allows the many sub-plots to be woven into one grand story.

Sadly, the actors' hard work is squandered on the attempt to make this play a musical. Perhaps seeking out a unique voice to tackle the problems provided by the play, Iskandar, composer Duncan Sheik, and arranger David Dabbon create giant gaps between scenes and fill the gaps with music and lyrics that only warp the characters into something that goes against the original text. The two handfuls of original songs are full of contemporary, ambiguous lyrics somewhat reminiscent of Sheik's well-known original score for the Tony-award winning musical Spring Awakening. However, unlike Sheik’s Broadway hit, this production lacks any type of contextual unity binding the lyrics of the songs and the words of Shakespeare’s text, breaking up the otherwise successful scene-work.

Other Reviews: Peter Marks, Shakespeare Theatre Company’s ‘Shrew’: An all-male muddle (Washington Post, May 25) Missy Frederick, Shakespeare Theatre Company's All-Male Shrew is Sincere and Stunning (DCist, May 25)

The fun and playful acting is the breath that drives this otherwise lacking production. The quick-paced verse works nicely and is showcased best by the “Shrew” Katherine (Maulik Pancholy) and the “Tamer” Petruchio (Peter Gadiot). When the music and repetitive choreography are stripped away, the production is left with the original text. This is when the play is fun but also extremely powerful and Pancholy displays a masterful understanding of the character Katherine. The sharp-tongued character is easy for Pancholy but so also are the moments of vulnerability which allows this production to keeps its head just above water.

The Taming of the Shrew runs 3 hours and 5 minutes including a 30-minute “intermezzo.” The production continues through until June 26 at the Shakespeare Theater Company’s Sidney Harman Hall.

'Othello' at STC

Shakespeare Theater Company’s production of Othello, directed by Ron Daniels (photo by Scott Suchman)
We welcome this theater review from contributor Philip Dickerson.

When director Ron Daniels and actor Faran Tahir brought the idea of mounting the Shakespeare Theater Company’s current production of Othello to artistic director Michael Kahn a year ago, the world was a different place. As Daniels articulates in his notes, the shift in the national and international conversation towards Islam as a faith and culture has only made this tragedy more relevant. Shakespeare’s language concerning race and racism sounds all too familiar, set here in the years after World War I.

Daniels finds a comfortable balance in stressing the racial tension of the script without losing the complexities of certain characters, namely the villainous Iago, played by Jonno Roberts. Roberts allowed the natural orchestration his character is known for to drive the production. Roberts wasted no time in allowing the language to push and pull his fellow characters. In his soliloquies he had the most fun playing with pace, vowel, and gesture. The meter of the verse was stretched and manipulated as easily as those wrapped up in his plans. These solo moments may last a bit long to keep the moment of the story fluid and constant, but the ease that Roberts brings to the language is refreshing.

This ease in Roberts's performance was missing in the title character, played by Faran Tahir. While Tahir brought a gracious optimism to the stage during the first half of the production, the language often failed to come across as natural or spontaneous. Tahir also struggled to command vocally the vast space provided by Riccardo Hernandez’s set design. Made primarily of a handful of iron barrels and a raked metal floor, the open Harman Hall stage swallowed the physical and vocal power that Tahir worked hard to deliver.

Other Reviews: Peter Marks, An ‘Othello’ of psychological realism (Washington Post, March 1)

The central relationship of the production was between Othello and his new bride, Desdemona, played by Ryman Sneed. Sneed tackled her character with blunt vigor and helped move the show forward when Roberts was absent. The push to make Desdemona a character of strength and independence blurred the honest intimacy between herself and Tahir. When the erosion of Othello’s mind and spirit began to invade Desdemona’s world it was hard to identify any strong change in the way she approached this new aggression from her husband. This underwhelming relationship created issues during the climax of the production. As Othello approached the bed where his sleeping wife lay vulnerable, the struggle in making that consequential decision seemed glossed over, almost too easy to make. The action of the crime itself also seemed forced and unbelievable.

Such trouble at the end of the production affected additional relationships, namely that between Iago and his wife, Emilia (Merritt Janson). This already tense relationship boils over when all truth is revealed; yet there again was a lack of justification for Emilia’s eruption and Othello’s remorse.

Othello runs three hours, with a 15-minute intermission, and performances will continue at the Shakespeare Theater Company’s Sidney Harman Hall until March 27.

'Romeo and Juliet' Returns to Synetic

Irina Kavsadze (Juliet) and Zana Gankhuyag (Romeo), Synetic Theater, 2016
We welcome this theater review from contributor Philip Dickerson.

William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet cuts both ways. The themes and beautiful language have stood the test of time, but it is overdone because it is taught and produced in schools throughout the world and mounted anywhere from community theaters to the recent, short-lived 2013 Broadway run. Despite this saturation, Synetic Theater has returned to their silent version of Romeo and Juliet for a third time. This genre of silent Shakespeare has become a staple for Synetic, allowing company founders Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili to prove that even the wordiest and most complex of stories can be told through gestures and facial expressions, as long as most of the audience is familiar with the text.

The chosen theme of this particular production is “time.” The set, designed by Anastasia Simes, is made entirely of clock cogs and gears of various sizes, not to mention the ticking composition of Konstantine Lortkipanidze. After the gears start to spin and time is underway, we are introduced to the title characters, played by Zana Gankhuyag and Irina Kavsadze. They battle through the cogs and gears of time until they break through to the moment of self-discovery in adolescence. Both Gankhuyag and Kasadze perform with whimsical grace and awe, but the fight against time has just begun.

Philip Fletcher delights with his portrayal of the sexually explicit Mercutio. Fletcher’s third remount of the character is a good articulation of what has kept this production vibrant over the years. His over-the-top take on the character provides not only stolid company for Gankhuyag, but also a drastic contrast to the stern-faced Tybalt (played by Ryan Sellers). Fletcher and Sellers’s rivalry give the play the visual explosion that separates this duo from the intimacy of the young lovers.

Without words, there is not a long drawn out back and forth between the title characters in the balcony scene. Instead, with a kiss we are transported into the world of their hearts as they become weightless and move in and around each other like birds in flight. But the highlight of their romance comes later as the two characters experience their first night together after being married. The use of high-power manual flashlights along with a single bed sheet to create a scene in shadow not only provides a new effect; it also creates an erotic embrace without tainting the beauty of their innocent love. The seamlessness between Verona and the emotional rush of what the lovers are experiencing on the inside fills the void of silence and maybe delivers something that even Shakespeare’s pen could not.

Other Reviews: Anne Donnelly, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Synetic Theater (D.C. Metro Theater Arts, February 19)

All creativity and masterful movement aside, the true delight of the evening is topped off by Irakli Kavsadze’s portrayal of the Friar. In a production filled with visually stimulated fights and dancing we have this aged character, who seems to orchestrate the entire play. His simplistic moments and continual glances towards the audience give the sense that he knows we are watching. His most basic facial expressions impart so much that one might wonder if all the flashing lights, flips, and tumbles by the rest of the company are truly necessary.

This production runs 80 minutes with no intermission and will end on March 27.

BSO and Folger, Star-Crossed

Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet (chor. L. Lavrovsky), D. Vishneva, V. Shklyarov, Mariinsky Theater, V. Gergiev (released on October 14, 2014) MAR0552 | 152 min

Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet was last seen in Washington from the Mariinsky Ballet in 2007. Orchestras play the score more regularly in concert form, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has now used the score to extend its quasi-concert offerings: in the vein of its film screenings with live music, this performance, heard on Friday night at the Meyerhoff in Baltimore, combined the complete orchestral score of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet with excerpts from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

This sounds like a good idea, but it is actually a bad one. Prokofiev's music was not made to accompany Shakespeare's play. It lines up with the choreography of the ballet's streamlined story, adapted in Soviet Russia, and has little to do with Shakespeare. Worse, rather than having a few excerpts between sections of the score, which would have allowed the listener to focus on one or the other, actors performed their lines, with powerful amplification, at the same time as the BSO was playing. The cacophony that this created was most unpleasant, taking two beautiful works of art and forcing them to annihilate each other. There were a few effective moments, when one or the other work took a pause, or when the dynamics of the orchestra lined up briefly with a scene. By and large, though, it was rather hard, perhaps not surprisingly, to take in two simultaneous performances.

Some of the score was cut, to keep the run time down to around two hours with an intermission, but Marin Alsop managed to keep the numbers with mandolins, which are often cut in ballet versions. In spite of the circumstances, some of the actors made favorable impressions, including the noble but venomous Lady Capulet of Kelley Curran and the dignified/ridiculous Friar Lawrence/Nurse of Louis Butelli, who was so memorable in the Folger's production of Henry VIII in 2010. The orchestra seemed out of sorts, with one of the players even plugging his ears during one of the actor's louder speeches, and the performance of the Prokofiev suffered, although there were some pretty moments, too.

Other Reviews: Tim Smith, A frustrating fusion of Shakespeare, Prokofiev from the BSO (Baltimore Sun, October 17)

Better to stick to the model of last year's Midsummer Night's Dream, by combining scores of incidental music and the plays they were meant to accompany. Helpfully, I drew up a list of such works to consider, which I publish again: Goethe's Egmont (Beethoven), Shakespeare's The Tempest (Sibelius), Ibsen's Peer Gynt (Grieg), Alphonse Daudet's L'Arlésienne (Bizet), Hugo's Ruy Blas (Mendelssohn), Helmina von Chézy's Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern (Schubert), Racine's Phèdre and Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris (Massenet), and Aristophanes' The Wasps (Vaughan Williams). These are just the ones I would most like to hear: there are many more, including several scores by Darius Milhaud.

This performance repeats this evening at Strathmore and Sunday afternoon at the Meyerhoff in Baltimore.

Folger and Jacobi's 'Merchant of Venice'

Lo Sposalizio (Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli), King's Consort, R. King (Hyperion, 1998)

Charles T. Downey, In ‘Merchant of Venice,’ authentic music accents the Bard’s history (Washington Post, March 2)

Sometimes the mission of the Folger Consort, to present historically informed performances of early music, overlaps with the specialization of its host institution, the Folger Shakespeare Library. Over the years, the ensemble has collaborated with actor Derek Jacobi and stage director Richard Clifford to present adaptations of the plays of Shakespeare, combining excerpts of the play with appropriate music. After their version of “The Tempest” in 2010, these artists reunited for a program of “The Merchant of Venice,” heard Friday night at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda.

Three traditions came into play in the choice of music,... [Continue reading]

Folger Consort and Piffaro
With Derek Jacobi, Richard Clifford, and Samantha Bond
The Merchant of Venice
Music Center at Strathmore

SEE ALSO:
Rebecca Ritzel, Concert of late Renaissance music inspired by an unlikely source (Washington Post, February 24)

PREVIOUSLY:
The Fairy Queen (2007)
The Tempest (2010)

Gold Coast 'Tempest' at STC

Clifton Duncan as Caliban in The Tempest, Shakespeare Theater Company, directed by Ethan McSweeny (photo by Scott Suchman)

The usual postmodern approach to Shakespeare's The Tempest is through the lens of master-slave exploitation. In this interpretation Prospero is the European colonizer, expelled from his homeland, who enslaves Caliban and Ariel, the natives of a distant land that has fallen under his control. He feels some remorse about his treatment of these foreigners, eventually setting Ariel free, but only after he has made himself wealthy and powerful on their backs and returns triumphant to his own land. The name of Caliban and parts of the text seem to indicate that Shakespeare had read Montaigne's accounts of cultures in the New World in Essais. One might dismiss this reading of the play, because most of the history of colonialism had yet to occur when the play was written in the early 17th century, but much of the play makes sense according to it. This was one thing that came across subtly in the Shakespeare Theater Company's new production of the play, which opened on Monday night at Sidney Harman Hall.

Ethan McSweeney's production takes place on a sun-bleached spit of sand, littered with driftwood and wrecked boat pieces (sets by Lee Savage), with most of the color palette whitened to a nondescript quality (lighting by Christopher Akerlind, costumes by Jennifer Moeller). The Caliban of Clifton Duncan is not a monster at all, just a man with dark skin and a thick accent that turns the character's lines into a sort of tortured patois, suggesting the Gold Coast of Africa or the Caribbean. When he pops out of a hole in the sand, it looks quite like the other trapdoors that served as exits from the hold of the foundering ship in the opening storm scene, and he is chained to a rock. In a similar way, Sofia Jean Gomez's contralto-ish Ariel is tethered to Prospero by the homespun rope that flies her about the stage to delightful effect (provided by Stu Cox from ZFX, Inc.). Geraint Wyn Davies brings a pleasing mixture of rage, tenderness, guilt, and mystery to Prospero, guiding the feral Miranda of Rachel Mewbron into the arms of Ferdinand (the tall and earnest Avery Glymph), his enemy's son.

Other Reviews: Peter Marks, Ethan McSweeny’s “Tempest” casts a bright, uplifting spell (Washington Post, December 10)

In the supporting cast, the comic antics of Liam Craig, as an odd, fey Trinculo, and Dave Quay, as the drunken Stefano, were the highlight. Other than Ariel's flight, the other spell effects in the play are achieved by a pleasing use of the ensemble, who serve as assistant spirits carrying out Prospero's commands, enchanting the shipwrecked interlopers. This fits in with the whimsical yet slightly scary approach to the two most difficult scenes to carry off in The Tempest: the magical banquet in Act III and the masque scene in Act IV. The banquet table dropped from the ceiling and then disappeared through a trap door, with Ariel's appearance as a harpy transformed into a terrifying black apparition, complete with amplification effects, warning those who wronged Prospero. It would be easy to justify deleting the masque scene, which scholars generally agree was interpolated into the play at a later performance. Its strange divertissement -- a convocation of the three goddesses Iris, Ceres, and Juno, followed by a ballet of Naiads and Sickle-Men -- does nothing to advance the action. This staging with more and more enormous puppets, floating torsos and masks designed by James Ortiz, was by far the trippiest moment in the production.

This production continues through January 11, at Sidney Harman Hall.

'Lear' from the Globe

Bethan Cullinane (Fool) and Joseph Marcell (Lear) in King Lear, Shakespeare's Globe

Theaters appear to be in a King Lear phase, as Washington Post critic Peter Marks observed recently. Productions of Shakespeare's bleakest play abound, but it remains extremely difficult to pull off on the stage. A touring production of the play from Shakespeare's Globe in London is now playing at the Folger Shakespeare Theater, on the first of several stops in the United States throughout the fall, seen on Sunday evening. Although it did not succeed altogether, there is still much to recommend it.

The success or failure of Lear depends ultimately on the actor in the title role. In this production it was Joseph Marcell, who has a history with the role, having been the first black Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Marcell had the pompous and infantile qualities of the character -- a powerful tyrant who often acts like a spoiled child -- as well as his rages, but although he caught many nuances of the old king's failing mind, the final third of the play dragged. Part of that is Shakespeare's fault, but a more varied expression of Lear's grief could have helped. The tragedy of the play is undermined -- or lightened, according to your preferences -- in this production by some song and dance numbers. The gallows humor of these numbers, with Alex Silverman credited as composer and Georgina Lamb as choreographer, was mostly a nice touch, the only exception being the one that closed the performance, spoiling the catharsis of Lear's demise.

Other Articles: Peter Marks, A well-played, compact ‘King Lear’ at Folger Theatre (Washington Post, September 10) ---, Here a ‘Lear,’ There a ‘Lear’ (Washington Post, August 23) Gary Tischler, Who is Lear? Next month at the Folger: Joseph Marcell (The Georgetowner, August 28)

The greatest strength of the production comes in the double casting of Bethan Cullinane as both Cordelia, Lear's most devoted daughter, and the Fool. While she brought admirable dignity and sweetness to the former role, she excelled in the latter, a half-witted but straight-shooting Cockney-inflected goof, in a homely costume topped by a knit child's hat with what looked like dog ears. The doubling, which may have been a feature of the casting in Shakespeare's time, with both roles played by a boy, also heightened the poignancy of Lear's final speech where, as he cradles Cordelia's dead body, he says, "And my poor fool is hang'd!" While one normally would chalk this up to Lear's confusion or to a poetic metaphor, here the statement was literal.

The rest of the cast is fine but not quite at that level, with the exception of the noble Earl of Gloucester and Duke of Albany of John Stahl. Gwendolen Chatfield (Goneril) and Shanaya Rafaat (Regan) were venomous and spiteful, and Alex Mugnaioni was a little too spastic in expression as Edgar and the Duke of Cornwall, but the same tics suited his Mad Tom to a tee. Bill Nash was a rough-neck Earl of Kent, appropriately enough in the guise of the servant later, and Daniel Pirrie was an oily Edmund, although the scene in which he had to play both that role and Oswald simultaneously was not worth the laughs the actors played for, or the embarrassment. This was the low point of an otherwise charming production directed by Bill Buckhurst, set in a sort of rundown 20th century (designed by Jonathan Fensom). The staging went for laughs where it could, which is laudable to a degree in this often dreary play, but it is also important to give tragedy the room it deserves.

This production continues through September 21, at the Folger Shakespeare Theater.

'Midsummer' Music from the BSO

Mendelssohn, Ein Sommernachtstraum, La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale Gent, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, P. Herreweghe (Harmonia Mundi, 2012)

In the past year A Midsummer Night's Dream has appeared in these pages in many different guises: in the opera by Benjamin Britten, in the ballet by Frederick Ashton, soon in a different ballet by George Balanchine, and even in its original version by Shakespeare. This week the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop are getting in on the fairy game, with a semi-staged, abridged version of the play accompanied by the ethereal overture and incidental music of Felix Mendelssohn, heard last night in the Music Center at Strathmore. The idea is not exactly new, but it brings to mind many possibilities for opportunities to revive rarely performed scores of incidental music with the plays they were composed to accompany: Goethe's Egmont (Beethoven), Shakespeare's The Tempest (Sibelius), Ibsen's Peer Gynt (Grieg), Alphonse Daudet's L'Arlésienne (Bizet), or Aristophanes' The Wasps (Vaughan Williams). A theater with an orchestra pit would be the ideal venue, making it possible to combine an actual production of the play with a space for the orchestra to perform the complete score.

The BSO provided an exquisite performance of Mendelssohn's score, in spite of being arranged toward the back of the stage and with sections of the orchestra separated from one another in unusual ways. This allowed the woodwinds to be at the front of the center part of the orchestra for a change, to create a central playing space around Alsop's podium, but it also created a few balance issues between the violins and the lower strings far away. Even so, as with last week's concert, the BSO was in top form, again especially the violins who were feather-light on the many filigree passages, even the ultra-fast Scherzo, and a top-notch horn solo in the Nocturne. The women of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society provided an evanescent background in the choral numbers, especially "Ye spotted snakes," with fine solo work from airy-voiced soprano Ying Fang and the more robust mezzo-soprano of Julie Boulianne.

Other Articles: Tim Smith, Baltimore Symphony, Folger Theatre present vivid 'Midsummer Night's Dream' (Baltimore Sun, May 31) Joan Reinthaler, 'Midsummer Night's Dream' with music at Folger Theatre (Washington Post, May 31) Rebecca Ritzel, BSO and Folger collaborate on unique staging of ‘Midsummer’ (Washington Post, May 28) Marin Alsop's Guide to Mendelssohn's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (NPR, May 24)

A group of seven actors, several of them regulars at the Folger Theater and each taking more than one role, gave an impression of Shakespeare's play, heavily excerpted and sewn together with a rather unfortunate narration. It was not the ideal solution, but it worked well enough and kept the focus on the musical score, most of which was performed without any theatrical business at the same time to distract from it. John Bolger was a strangely non-menacing Oberon, all hunched over, which made Linda Powell's Titania even more spiteful by comparison. With Spencer Aste's Puck not all that memorable either, it was easy for the four lovers and Rude Mechanicals, especially the gangling Helena and monotone Snout of Kate Eastwood Norris, to steal the show. Edward Berkeley's minimal staging featured a few atmospheric lighting plans (designed by Donald Thomas), and some branches, with colored lights, suspended from the ceiling gave the sense of the enchanted forest.

This performance repeats tonight and tomorrow, at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.

Bristol Old Vic's 'Midsummer'

Staging Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is tricky principally because of the fairy scenes. How do you represent the liminal nature of the play, in which characters cross between worlds? Benjamin Britten, in his operatic version, could do it with music, but productions of the play have to do it visually. The staging by the company from the Bristol Old Vic and the Handspring Puppet Company, who created the most natural interaction of human and life-size puppets in Warhorse, uses puppetry. It was shown during the Kennedy Center's World Stages festival, where I saw it on Saturday night, in the Eisenhower Theater.

The word puppetry may give a too grand sense of what this production does. The world of the fairies is made of rather crude materials, with the puppeteers using planks to give a sense of the forest breathing and moving around the lovers or to evoke the wings and magical aura of Titania, Queen of the Fairies. The actors playing Hippolyta and Theseus are shown like puppeteers in a workshop, and they lift masks in the air when they take on the personae of Titania and Oberon, the latter carrying an enormous mechanical arm and hand, with ominous music and amplification of their voices to help the illusion. Puck is voiced and brought to life by three puppeteers, a sort of dog-like creature made of a coffee-pot for a head, a wicker basket for a body, and various utensils for his limbs. The way the production works, as directed by Tom Morris, all of the actors have to excel in acting, puppetry, and singing (music by Dave Price), as they do all of these, shifting seamlessly from one role to the other as the evening proceeds.

Other Articles: Benjamin Tomchik, The Kennedy Center's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM is an Innovative Retelling of a Timeless Classic (Broadway World, March 23) Nelson Pressley, Puppets make ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ magical at Kennedy Center World Stages fest (Washington Post, March 22) Joel Brown, Puppets in Shakespeare’s fairyland? Imagine that. (Boston Globe, February 28)

It is a visually plain production in terms of materials, but rich in its sense of fantasy and with plenty of laughs (designed by Vicki Mortimer, lighting by Philip Gladwell, sound by Christopher Shutt). Saskia Portway (Hippolyta/Titania) and David Ricardo-Pearce (Theseus/Oberon) were a fiercely battling couple, and one was really not sure until the end of the play that the noble marriage would be accomplished. The quartet of lovers was goofy and gangly as a bunch of adolescents, with a particularly funny exchange between Hermia (Akiya Henry) and Helena (Naomi Cranston) on the touchy subject of the former's lack of stature. The antics of the Rude Mechanicals troupe were also quite good, led by the oversized, Greek-tinged rodomontades of Miltos Yerolemou's Bottom and the hilariously incomprehensible utterances of Saikat Ahamed's Snug. The transformation of Bottom into the Ass was especially bizarre, involving a sort of carriage that Yerolemou lay upon and wheeled himself around on, which literally inverted the actor, making his ass into his head and vice-versa. The troupe's performance of the The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe was riotously bad, a ramshackle conclusion to an entertaining evening.

The World Stages Festival concludes this week, at the Kennedy Center.

Previously at the World Stages Festival:
Marguerite Duras, Savannah Bay (Théâtre de l'Atelier)
Peter Brook, The Suit (Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord)
Penny Plain (Ronnie Burkett Theater of Marionettes)
La Muerte / Incendios (La Mafia Teatro)
Harmsaga (National Theater of Iceland)

Folger Theater's 'Henry VIII'

(L-R) Ian Merrill Peakes (King Henry VIII) and Louis Butelli (Will Sommers), in Henry VIII, Folger Theater (photo by Carol Pratt)

Last year (June 24, 2009) was the 500th anniversary of the coronation of King Henry VIII. Earlier this month, the Folger Consort gave a concert of music from the time of the Henry VIII's reign, including some pieces attributed to the king himself. Now the Folger Theater has opened a new production of Shakespeare's Henry VIII. At the same time, the Folger Library is hosting an excellent exhibit called Vivat Rex!, which was reviewed by Philip Kennicott in the Post. The play comes very late in Shakespeare's life, and his authorship has been seriously questioned -- at least part of it is the work of John Fletcher, who succeeded Shakespeare as playwright for the King's Men.

While it is not exactly unknown or unperformed, it is rare enough that this production is likely to be of interest to people, like myself, who have never seen the play staged. If you are expecting a more or less complete version, with all of the pageantry associated with a grand history play, you will be disappointed. However, the idea created by director Robert Richmond and dramaturg Michele Osherow was to weave a much more intimate sense of the drama around the person of Henry VIII's somewhat famous court jester Will Sommers. This character, a historical personage not actually in the text of the play, reads the prologue and other narrative passages and takes on several minor roles, both male and female, giving the impression of a whimsical demiurge controlling the action behind the scenes. That the concept works is largely to the credit of the talented and very funny actor, Louis Butelli, who appears remarkably like the known illustrations of Sommers -- at least one of them is in the Folger's exhibit -- with his balding head and stubble but without the monkey literally on his back. He entertains periodically with a box of puppets (designed by Betsy Rosen) and other props, representing the powerful characters in the play, and orchestrates the movements of the other actors with wizard-like gestures.

Shakespeare's text has been either bowdlerized or cut down to a manageable length, depending on your point of view. The running time is about two and a half hours, thanks to removal of several scenes and parts of scenes. This eliminates some of the more esoteric historical aspects of the play, like the interference of orthodox Catholic clergy in these events leading up to the separation of the Anglican church -- there is no reference to either the scheming "Chartreux Monk" (that is, a monk from the Charterhouse, the Carthusian monastery in London that formed the ultra-orthodoxy of Thomas More among others) or Thomas More, chosen to succeed the disgraced Cardinal Wolsey as chancellor and who met his own bad end. Perhaps most regrettably, the cuts slightly diminish the character of Henry's wife, Katherine of Aragon, whom the king decides, after much anguish, to divorce in the hope of producing a male heir with another wife. She is one of the most sympathetic and interesting female characters among the many produced by Shakespeare, and even with the cutsm Helen Hayes Award winner Naomi Jacobson gives a fiery performance in the role, her words tinged with a slight Spanish accent.

Other Reviews: Peter Marks, Folger Theatre's 'Henry VIII' (Washington Post, October 20) Philip Kennicott, Shakespeare’s Last Oratorio (October 17) Barbara Mackay, Folger’s ‘Henry VIII’ an energetic, outstanding show (Washington Examiner, October 18)

This rethinking of the drama as a more personal court intrigue does play into Shakespeare's sympathetic portrayal of Henry VIII, a devoted husband who truly loves Catherine but sacrifices her to the more important interest of the stability of the monarchy and a devout believer who puts his trust in learned churchmen only to be undermined by their greed and corruption. The extraordinary actor Ian Merrill Peakes captures the character's contradictions, his ego and yet attachment to others, his fidelity and his adulterous lust, his rage and vindictiveness when crossed. Fine performances in the supporting cast include the Duke of Norfolk of another Helen Hayes Award winner, Lawrence Redmond, Anthony Cochrane as the scheming and duplicitous Cardinal Wolsey (also responsible for the music and sound design), and the Duke of Suffolk Todd Scofield (full disclosure -- a friend of our own Todd Babcock). As a Lady of the Court, Megan Steigerwald provided some musical diversion, adding discant parts to the recorded selections, including versions of Henry VIII's famous "Kynges Balade" ("Pastime with good company"). The costumes (designed by William Ivey Long) are beautiful and modeled on illustrations of the period, and the set (designed by Tony Clark) is in sharply pointed steel, with a "heavens," a crown-like platform that juts out over the stage, used effectively for some of the scenes.

This production of Shakespeare's Henry VIII continues through November 21, at the Folger Theater.

UPDATE:
The Folger Theater has extended the run of this production through November 28.