THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS
AIRDATE: October 03, 2003
So, how do you like your theater? Over
easy? Light and fluffy? Or stuffed with tangy tidbits? The Old Globe is serving
up a trio of dramatic dishes… two frothy confections and one meaty main course.
The bonbons, by often-headier writers -- Will Shakespeare and Tom Stoppard --
could both be called "Much Ado About Nothing." The Bard's romantic
comedy is getting an opulent but airy production outdoors on the Festival
Stage. Two TV actors brace themselves for linguistic warfare as Beatrice and
Benedick in "Much Ado." Though the setting is a sun-dappled, drop-dead
gorgeous Tuscan villa just after WWI, these two are decidedly 21st
century in their movement and manner. Dana Delany is acerbic as the resolutely
independent neo-feminist, Beatrice. Billy Campbell plays Benedick as a clown
prince whose stage presence, if not his antic buffoonery, is irresistible and
whose appearance is almost as drop-dead gorgeous as the set he cavorts in.
Director Brendon Fox makes use of every lavish inch of the set, but he opts for
silliness over wit, and the dark side of the deceptions becomes mere undertone
to the general frivolity.
Frivolity rules in Stoppard's "Rough Crossing," a
singularly nonsensical adaptation of a 1927 comedy by Hungarian playwright
Ferenc Molnar. Reset at sea, the play follows the sometimes-musical misadventures
of a flamboyant playwriting duo. Also on board are a highly strung leading
lady; a lecherous leading man; a temperamental composer with a bizarre speech
defect; and a bumbling, show-stealing steward. It's all a matter of
"tongue trippery and tripped uppery," as Stoppard puts it, but the
set is wonderful, the cast is terrific, and guest director Stan Wojewodski
keeps the proceedings amusingly frenetic. Too silly for my taste, but it may
tempt to your farcical palate.
Now, next door, there's something to really sink your teeth into:
"Blue/Orange," winner of London's Olivier Award for Best New Play of
2001. Hailed as a dark, ferocious comedy, Joe Penhall's play is more serious
than humorous, pitting youthful idealism against jaded pragmatism, doctors against
patients, medical impartiality against racial stereotyping. The central
triangle is a young psychiatrist, his supercilious supervisor and a
possibly-schizophrenic patient who thinks he's the son of African dictator Idi
Amin. The power among the three shifts rapidly and unpredictably, though the
didactic dialogue sometimes slows down the zigzagging plot. What's enthralling
about this play is that nothing is black or white, or blue or orange, for that
matter; it's all shades of gray. A fascinating look at humans being
frustratingly human..but the stakes here are high -- two careers and possibly a
life. The acting and direction are outstanding; Richard Seer has coaxed finely
nuanced performances from Teagle F. Bougere, Ned Schmidtke and Brian Hutchison.
"Blue/Orange" does nothing to dispel the rumor that shrinks are
crazier than their patients. Clearly, the British health care system is in as
much crisis as ours. And when it comes to power plays, boys will be boys…..
Overall, some delicious morsels to chew on. Hearty theater appetite!
©2003
Patté Productions Inc.