TWO GENTS FUNNY, SMART
Bard’s comedy a must-see hit
With the opening of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, all four of this year’s Shakespeare plays are up and running at Bard on the Beach in one of the festival’s most curious seasons.
All are set in Italy. None is a tragedy or a history. And all four plays — though not their productions — have romantic comedy endings.
Two Gents, one of Shakespeare’s earliest and, in places, dumbest comedies, might be the least likely to succeed. But director Scott Bellis has put together an astonishingly funny, smart, elegant staging. Fine comic acting, gorgeous visuals and a supremely imaginative handling of problem issues make this the must-see hit of the summer.
And did I mention the hopelessly cute dog?
The title characters are best buddies Valentine (Nadeem Phillip) and Proteus (Charlie Gallant). But when Proteus unexpectedly falls for Valentine’s sweetie, Silvia (Adele Noronha), he betrays both his girlfriend Julia (Kate Besworth) and Valentine to pursue her. Meanwhile, the Duke of Milan, Silvia’s father (Edward Foy), wants her to marry Lord Turio (delightfully pompous Kamyar Pazandeh).
The usual complications ensue. Lovelorn Julia dresses as a boy. The servants, Julia’s Lucetta (Carmela Sison), Valentine’s Speed (squeaky-voiced Chirag Naik) and Proteus’s Launce (funny po-faced Andrew Cownden), do their comic servant thing.
And did I mention Launce’s dog Crab (Gertie the basset hound)? Cownden gets a big laugh when he deadpans, “I think my dog Crab be the sourest-natured dog that lives,” while Gertie stands there looking as goofily sweetnatured as any dog possibly can.
The central performances are all very strong. Phillip makes a dashing Valentine. Gallant’s Proteus is a charmer despite being such a rotter. Besworth’s Julia is adorable and Noronha’s tough Silvia gives the play its ethical centre.
The comic servants are as laughable as they’re supposed to be. But the strength of this production also shows in its smallest details. A throwaway scene involving Proteus, his parents (Paul Moniz de Sá and Luisa Jojic) and Launce becomes a funny little gem through a synthesis of subtle acting, clever use of props (a couple of stuffed birds) and piquant comic business (making and pouring a pot of tea).
Longtime Bard costume designer Mara Gottler outdoes herself here, dressing the characters in utterly gorgeous garb, circa 1800. Many of the play’s relationships are punctuated by elegant dances choreographed by Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg. Those elements combine with Julie Casselman’s music and Adrian Muir’s subtle lighting in a brief masque that’s breathtakingly beautiful.
And with one brilliant stroke Bellis solves the play’s two biggest problems along with Bard’s desire to create more roles for women. The problems: a silly scene in which Valentine is captured by a band of outlaws who nonsensically make him their leader; and the happily-everafter ending where all Proteus’s betrayals, including his shocking attempted rape of Silvia, are glibly forgiven.
Bellis makes the outlaws women in disguise, giving hilarious comic logic to their capture and promotion of hunky Valentine. And when the men laughingly exit at the end, having neatly resolved all their issues, the women — Julia, Silvia and the three outlaws — stand there silently, mouths agape, astonished and appalled, echoing the ending of this year’s Merchant of Venice on the same stage.
Bellis even has a character mention that production of Merchant in another supremely clever rewrite of a Shakespearean moment that can’t possibly work in 2017.
But everything works here. This is great comic theatre.