SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
Citadel’s opener reminds us what we like about the Bard
Citadel kicks off its season with joyful production
A tight ensemble of muses gathers around William Shakespeare in the opening scene of the latest Citadel production, Shakespeare in Love. The playwright is at his desk, trying to shake a particularly virulent case of writer’s block. The entire cast of the production, 20 souls, huddle at his shoulder, sighing and gasping in concert as the writer struggles to finish a sentence.
“Shall I compare thee to a something, something. Dammit.”
As an opening scene, it is both comic, and symbolic — heralding not only the scenes to come, but the entire upcoming season at the Citadel. Oh, how we need our artists to express the inexpressible, so we can all know what it is we are feeling.
Shakespeare in Love is the first directorial outing by the Citadel’s new artistic director, Daryl Cloran, in this, his inaugural season. A co-production with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, it was inspired by the first incarnation of Shakespeare in Love, the Oscar-winning film by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman that was released in 1998. Later adapted for the stage by Lee Hall, the production was performed in 2014 in London’s West End, and proved popular during Stratford’s 2016 season.
Cloran’s own interpretation moves effortlessly between comic and tragic, imagining what might have led the Bard to write his most moving, most heartrending tale.
The production begins as Shakespeare (nimbly play by Citadel newcomer Andrew Chown) is desperately trying to finish a commission, which he has named Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter (get it?). It’s proving a slog, and Shakespeare’s friend and fellow playwright, Kit Marlowe, suggests a love affair might spark the creative fire. (No need for a wife and twins to get in the way.)
Shakespeare unwittingly takes Marlowe’s advice when he meets Viola de Lesseps (Toronto’s Bahareh Yaraghi), a merchant’s daughter who loves the theatre and longs to be a part of it. But women aren’t allowed to act in Elizabethan times, so Viola dresses as a man, calls herself Thomas Kent, and auditions for a part in a Shakespeare production. Thereafter, it gets very complicated, with lots of surprising kisses, in true Shakespearean fashion. In the end, Will’s writer’s block dissolves, and he creates his most memorable work.
Along the way, two acting troupes are in swashbuckling competition for Shakespeare’s play, a villainous suitor arranges to purchase Viola from her father, and Queen Elizabeth settles a bet on whether the theatre can reveal the truth and nature of love.
The charm of the play, much like the movie, is that it disarms the audience with the better known Shakespearean conventions and characters (mistaken identities, star-crossed lovers, Othello) and provides a cheap ticket for the insider’s seat. Don’t we feel clever when we understand the references, snickering as Marlowe suggests that one ending for Romeo and Juliet could see Juliet marry a blackamoor and be strangled with a handkerchief.
Shakespeare in Love reveals our collective guilty secret. We’d all love Shakespeare if it was a steady diet of Romeo and Juliet, but, truth be told, many of us are perplexed and sleepy during King Lear. We are tremendously relieved to be told that even Elizabeth I preferred a play that featured a dog. (And oh, the dog in this show, Sizzle, a three-yearold Miniature Australian Shepherd, is outstanding as Spot.)
There is much sport in the contrast of old and new in the Citadel production. The lavish costumes by Cory Sincennes strut about a simple set that suggests the Elizabethan stage of yore, with its tiers and pillars, to great effect. Later, we feel as if we are truly floating in a boat on the Thames right beside Shakespeare as he is steered by a strong and silent boatman (the excellent Andrew MacDonald-Smith). But then the boatman launches into a modern, fan-boy riff:
“Hang on a minute. I know your face. You’re an actor. I saw you in something ... What was it? The one with the king.”
Adding insult to injury, the boatman notes he once had Kit Marlowe in his craft, and asks Shakespeare if he would have time to read the boatman’s own gargantuan play.
Stoppard and Norman probably go a little far to make the bard accessible. In this production, Edmonton’s own Farren Timeteo is an audience favourite as Wabash, but the stuttering tailor who gets a part in Romeo and Juliet to settle a debt to the show’s producer is total cheeseball. Still, that dog was tremendous.
The large size of the cast in Shakespeare in Love, wellstocked with many local favourites including John Ullyatt, Garett Ross and Robert Benz, generates an “all-in-this-together” sentiment, a fitting opener to a season that promises to diverge sharply from the many seasons preceding it, helmed by former artistic director Bob Baker. Ullyatt addresses the audience before the show begins, reflecting on the connection between theatre and community, clearly Cloran’s thrust for the 2017-18 season. Will audiences feel connected enough to each other and this theatre to up their ticket purchases? Stay tuned.
Shakespeare in Love runs through Oct. 8 in the Shoctor Theatre.
Daryl Cloran’s interpretation moves effortlessly between comic and tragic, imagining what might have led the Bard to write his most moving, most heartrending tale.