Two
Gentlemen of Verona
Written
by William Shakespeare
Directed
by J. Barrett Cooper
Review
by Katherine Dalton
Entire contents copyright 2013 by Katherine Dalton,
all rights reserved.
Shakespeare's
Two Gentlemen of Verona is one of his early plays, and in some ways it's
an unsatisfying one. The hero/anti-hero Proteus is really too much like Iago for
our comfort in his studied betrayal of his guileless friend, and the reversals
of fortunes and unmerited forgiveness at the end of the play are hard to
credit. But Two Gentlemen is nonetheless a comedy full of fun and
beautiful language, and this production is well served by its Walden Theatre
cast and by its director, J. Barrett Cooper.
Proteus
and Valentine are the two young gentlemen of the title, best friends who are
separated when Valentine leaves for Milan to join the Duke's court. There
Valentine promptly falls in love with the Duke's daughter, Sylvia, and she with
him, despite the fact that the Duke has promised her to another. Proteus soon
follows his friend, thus separating himself from his own beloved, Julia. Downcast
at first, Proteus changes his tune when he sees Sylvia, and he quickly decides
to forget his old love and cut out his old friend, trying to win Sylvia for
himself by informing the Duke of Valentine's intention to elope with her.
From
here follows the bumpy course which true love often suffers on stage: Julia's
disguise as a boy to follow Proteus to Milan, a false wooing, an escape, a
chase, a capture by brigands, and near disaster. But this being a comedy, which
by definition must end with a wedding (or two), constancy and forgiveness
finally overcome the wiles and evil of what is surely one of the playwright's
least attractive young lovers.
It
is to the credit of Walden Theatre that for decades it has trained its actors
to make sense out of language that is four hundred years old – language that sounds dense and difficult to modern ears that are all too used to the thin grammar
of reality television. Proteus, Valentine and Julia have monologues that the
actors made perfect sense of, because they themselves understood what they were
saying, and because they were able to convey that understanding even to the
sixth-grader (unfamiliar with the play) who sat next to me.
Both
Christian Academy's Parker Henderson (as Valentine) and Atherton's Kenny Harris
(as Proteus) spoke well, especially in their longer speeches, and conveyed the
necessary emotion for the former character and coldness for the latter. YPAS
student Courtney Doyle was a comically manic Julia; and Chloe Bell (also at
YPAS) was particularly good in her later scenes when she showed her disdain and
anger for Proteus.
Two
Gentlemen
is famous for its casting of a dog, and this production did not
disappoint: Cinnamon played the
rascally Crab with restraint and delicacy and was an excellent foil to her
master in the play (and also real life), Trinity student DJ Nash, who acted the
part of Proteus's foolish servant, Launce.
Shakespeare
wrote several comic parts that are all the funnier when they are given to tall,
broad-shouldered actors (such as Mr. Nash) to play. I have seen a great bear of
a man play a wonderful Touchstone in As You Like It; and in A
Midsummer Night's Dream the larger Bottom the Weaver is the funnier he is,
especially when speaking through the chink. The same can be said of my favorite
clown, Dogberry, from Much Ado About Nothing or Armado in
Love's Labours Lost. These fools take up a great deal of emotional space
with their malapropisms and misunderstandings, and they are all the more
comical when they take up a lot of physical space too. Mr. Nash's lisp,
timing and breadth of reach made good use of the excellent lines the playwright
gave him to speak. He was a prince among fools, very funny, and fully up to the
standard set by his dog.
Also
memorable were St. Francis High School's Lexi Drexelius as Valentine's
sharp-witted, Jersey-accented servant Speed, and the deliberate and implacable
(till the end, that is) Duke played by Manual's Travis Ryan. Noe's Rachel
Friedland did a good job in several small parts and I look forward to seeing
her out of that beard and into some leading lady roles. Shana Lincoln's
costumes contrasted a squeaky-clean '50s look for Verona with a harder-edged
“steampunk” mid-'60s look for Milan – an artistic choice that conveyed clearly
the darker emotional atmosphere of the Duke's court. Kudos as well to stage
manager Imogen Cooper of Highland Middle and lighting designer Cherrish Curry
of Floyd Central, who ran light and sound cleanly on cue from the control
booth – one of those jobs that goes unnoticed until it's done badly.
Two Gentlemen of Verona
May 9-19
May 9-19
Running
in repertory with The Liar and The Tempest in Walden's annual
Young American Shakespeare Festival
Nancy
Niles Sexton Stage at Walden Theatre
1125
Payne Street
Louisville,
KY 40205
502-589-0084
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