Marilyn and I drove to Cedar City to attend the Utah Shakespeare Festival Friday morning. This is one of our favorite traditions and we look forward to it all year (we are already planning for next year). We were there for three days and two nights and were able to see four shows.
Our first show on Friday was The 39 Steps in the Randall Jones Theatre. This is one of my favorites because it is a hilarious spoof of the 1935 spy thriller of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock. There are only four actors performing all of the roles and the action is lightning fast with scene changes and costume changes happening on stage. Tom Coiner plays Richard Hannay, a man at loose ends who becomes embroiled in a plot to stop a ring of spies from stealing military secrets after a mysterious woman named Annabella Schmidt is stabbed to death in his apartment. Tracie Lane plays Annabella and several other women who become romantically involved with Hannay when he travels to Scotland to clear his name. Michael Doherty and Bailey Savage play every other character, including actors, traveling salesman, policeman, innkeepers, farmers, spies, and more. The staging is so clever and I especially loved the use of light and shadow in the chase sequences. The set, which features a large corrugated metal backdrop with props scattered around the stage ready to be used, is also very clever. I enjoyed the performances because the physical comedy is brilliant. Doherty is one of my favorite actors at the festival because he has fantastic comedic timing and his physicality is so much fun to watch but there were several instances, especially at the political meeting and at the inn, where his shtick goes on a bit too long. I really liked, but didn't quite love, this production.
On Friday night we saw A Winter's Tale outside in the Engelstad Theatre. I saw this at the festival many years ago but I didn't really remember it so it was my most anticipated show this year. I absolutely loved it! King Leontes of Sicilia (Chauncey Thomas) becomes wrongly convinced that his wife Queen Hermione (Tracie Lane) is being unfaithful with his childhood friend King Poloxines of Bohemia (Geoffrey Kent) and that Poloxines is the father of her unborn child. Leontes refuses to believe the oracle which exonerates Hermione and tragedy ensues until his rightful daughter Perdita (Alaysia Renay Duncan), who has been raised by an old shepherd (Chris Mixon), falls in love with Prince Florizel (Christopher Centinaro), the son of Poloxines, sixteen years later. I loved everything about this production! The set is beautiful (the set pieces and the sumptuous costumes place the events in the early 1900s) with an emphasis on false images, through the use of large picture frames around the action, and time healing wounds, with a large clock located above the action. I also loved Hermione's jail cell and statue which rise dramatically from below the stage. All of the performances are outstanding and I especially loved Thomas, because he convincingly portrays so many different emotions, the amusing interactions between Michael Doherty, as Antigonus, and Trenell Mooring, as his wife Paulina, and Kinsley Seegmiller as the young Prince Mamillius because he is adorable. Marilyn loved this as much as I did!
Saturday afternoon we saw Much Ado About Nothing in the Randall Jones Theatre and this was my favorite of the festival. Prince Don Pedro (Rodney Lizcano) returns home from war to stay with Leonato (Henry Woronicz), the governor of Messina, with his soldiers Benedict (Walter Kmiec) and Claudio (Jimmy Nguyen) and his bastard brother Don John (Marco Antonio Vega). Claudio falls in love with Hero (Dariana Elise Perez), Leonato's daughter, and to pass the time before their wedding Hero's cousin Beatrice (Melinda Parrett) and Benedict are duped into believing the other is in love with them. On the night before the wedding Claudio is deceived by a plot devised by the jealous Don John and denounces Hero as unchaste. She is overcome and believed to be dead before she is eventually proved innocent by a chance discovery made by Dogberry (Blake Henri), the bumbling constable. Benedict wins Beatrice's love by defending her cousin's honor and Claudio is eventually reunited with Hero after realizing his error. Comedy is sometimes really tricky (more on this later) but this production gets the balance just right. The physicality between Parrett (another one of my favorite actors at the festival) and Kmiec is absolutely hilarious, particularly their interactions after they learn the other loves them. The scenes involving the constable and the watchmen, which can sometimes be overdone, are also incredibly funny. The entire audience laughed out loud from beginning to end! Every aspect of this production is extremely well done (I loved the set) and I would say this is the best version of this show that both Marilyn and I have seen.
Our last show on Saturday was The Taming of the Shrew in the Engelstad Theatre and I cannot even begin to express how much both of us hated this particular interpretation. This is the first show I have ever walked out of in my life; Marilyn didn't even make it to intermission. This production includes the rarely performed induction scene, which is a framing device wherein the drunken Christopher Sly (Topher Embrey) is shown a play by a traveling troupe to teach him a lesson about his bad behavior. The acting troupe then completely transforms the stage with set pieces that belong in the world of Dr. Seuss while wearing outlandish costumes incorporating bold colors with black and white patterns. They then perform the story of Katherina (Caitlin Wise) and Petruchio (John DiAntonio) in the style of commedia dell'arte which features exaggerated performances and stock characters. Baptista (Chris Mixon), a wealthy lord of Padua, refuses to let the many suitors, including Lucentio (James Carlos Lacey), Hortensio (John Harrell), and Gremio (Rodney Lizcano), court his beautiful younger daughter Bianca (Valerie Martire) until his shrewish older daughter Katherina is married. Lucentio convinces Petruchio, who is motivated by her large dowry, to marry the reluctant Katherina so he can marry Bianca but Katherina eventually proves the more obedient wife. I really dislike slapstick because, in my opinion, it is the lowest form of comedy and assumes that the audience cannot appreciate the nuances in the story. Not only does this feature slapstick but it is overdone (complete with circus music and obnoxious sound effects) to the point of tedium. I initially enjoyed the interactions between Wise and DiAntonio because they are funny, especially when she hisses at him, but when slapstick is used in the scenes where Katherina is mistreated by Petruchio I couldn't take it any more and decided to leave (it was really empowering to leave something I wasn't enjoying). This production is definitely the worst version of this play that I have ever seen and it is unfortunate that this was our final performance because both Marilyn and I enjoyed everything else. We still had a great time at the festival and and it was really fun to experience all of our traditions (the many tarts we had were delicious).
Note: There are many other opportunities at the festival such as backstage tours, costume and prop seminars, and discussions about the performances. We have done many of these but this year Marilyn and I attended "Repertory Magic" and we got to see the changeover from the set for The 39 Steps to the set for Much Ado About Nothing at the Randall Jones Theatre. It was absolutely fascinating!
