Thus Always to Poets . . .
directed by Johanna-Karen Johannson
Shakespeare In The Wild production of March 5 - March 20
review March 17th 2004, by Louis Lopardi
This peripatetic company performs in the Holy Trinity Church in Inwood, then bravely tours to various venues around the city. This performance was in the Washington Square United Methodist Church, whose problematically cavernous confines were not addressed. (Putting listeners near the long end of a space like that exaggerates the echoes and standing-waves in the room.) This production, while energetic, fell somewhat short of past offerings by this company. (See our past and archived reviews.)
Mario Alexander as Caesar fit right into the modern-dress production concept, but were these mobsters and their molls, or latter-day politicians and their advance men? Miriam Kove was solid as his Calpurnia. And a surprising soothsayer, Scheryl Porter, showed a depth and flexibility of range in her various roles; she knows her voice and her stage space as well. Larry Weeks was always alert and creative as Casca and others.
Our Cassius, Charles J. Roby, was made to seem an emcee or affable awards-show host. Mr. Roby has a difficult voice to control, yet he does it - always - and maintained a consistently developing character (even if, for me, an oddly chosen one). Unfortunately, his ease made many others in the cast seem stiff and wooden by comparison, especially the Brutus - (Joseph Hamel, who has an instrument worth training) - and wondering what to do with their hands while standing there listening but unresponsive to others' lines.
Many in the hard-working cast showed potential. Sandra Cummings (as Portia) appeared unsure of herself at first - (it may have been the move to a new venue which may well have spooked many in the cast) - but found her character at last. Both she and John-Patrick Driscoll (Marc Anthony) seem to have an ear for the language worth developing. Val McDaniel (better as Metellus), Aaron Wilton (better as Octavius), Christopher Bruckman, and Nicholas Verdugo all played multiple roles with ease. As a child Lucius, young Chris Kelly - calmly and solidly in character - could teach all of us a thing or two about natural acting.
The fast pacing and cutting (acceptable cuts, mostly) would give young students an easy introduction to the play, - but they would have lost an introduction to the language. Peculiar line readings came so fast and so many that a listener could be distracted with discerning the novel meanings to passages. Many in the cast were apparently in their training told to keep things flowing by accenting only the ends of lines. The result was a kind of universal barking whenever the pace quickened. For the most part, the great "arch" of classical theatre simply wasn't there - not in the Acts, not in the phrases, not in the lines (where it all should have started). The director had enough of an ear for the voices to prevent much of the bellowing which mars most church-space Shakespeare, and diction overall was mostly acceptable. So why then ignore the language? Just about everything else can be forgiven in low-budget productions, but to ignore the poetry, the parsing, the meaning . . . Cinna is the only poet who should suffer in the play.