Shakespeare Theatre Company's -Washington, DC
Academy for Classical Acting
June 22, 2012
Brad: A
Chelsea: B
This was play number 20! Only 17 more to go! We are over half way, but just barely.
So, we didn't really know what to expect with this play. I originally thought it was at reasonably large theatre one-block from my work. Unsurprisingly, I was wrong. Turns out, it was in a black-box theatre across town.
When we realized this was a student production, we started to have flashbacks to Twelfth Night and King Lear, but this production was GREAT!
Quick Synopsis: Helen loves Bertram, but Bertram is noble and Helen is not. The King of France is sick, and there is no hope for recovery. But Helen has a special medicine and she is sure it can cure the
King. So she goes to him and offers it to him. She and the King make a deal: If the medicine works, the King will give her any husband she wants; if the medicine doesn't work, she dies. Good news, the medicine works, and Helen picks Bertram to marry. The King makes it happen, but Bertram is not too excited. And he runs away, refusing to consummate the marriage. Long story short, Helen fakes her death and goes to Italy where Bertram is stationed. Helen befriends a woman the Bertram is obsessed with and plots. The plan is this: the young Italian woman agrees to invite Bertram to her bedchamber at night and promise him her purity, but when Bertram shows Helen will switch places with the Italian woman and consummate her marriage. The plan works, and the play ends with Helen pregnant and in possession of Bertram's family's famous ring. Apparently, through all of this Bertram sees what he has been missing and they leave together.
I should note there is a lot more to this play than this brief synopsis. In fact, our favorite part involved a fake interrogation of Parolles, Bertram's friend. Just hilarious.
This production was awesome. The director chose to make it pretty dark, though at moments, it was hilarious. Just before the play, Lavatch, the clown in the play, played dark versions of jazz-standard love songs. Parolles was our favorite character. He was a great actor, and he played his quasi-goofy role just straight enough to hit a good balance between silly and heady. All of the actors were in fact great. It turns out this production, playing in repertory with another classical play, is the culmination of a year long graduate study program in classical acting at George Washington University. And these actors should all be hitting the Shakespeare circuit with a vengeance because all were excellent. They were also very friendly.
After the play, we ate outside at a restaurant directly next to the theatre.
Note the banner above in the background of the picture below:
So, as we were eating, the cast walked out. I gave the first couple of folks an all-American thumbs-up to indicate my patriotic, red-blooded congratulations on a show well done:
A couple of actors stopped and talked for a moment. One was very excited about our little project and introduced us to the director. They were all very nice, which makes us appreciate this production that much more.
After a busy week of creating wedding invitations, drafting multiple motions to dismiss, and enduring the first HOT week of the summer, this was a perfect Friday night: good play, good food, and good company. As Gabe Dixon says:
All will be well
Even after all the promises you've broken to yourselfAll will be well
You can ask me how but only time will tell
- Gabe Dixon, All Will Be Well
A good Friday night quickly melts away the stress of a tough week. And this Friday night did just the trick.
Brads Well
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