FAVORITE THINGS ‘Sound of Music,’ ‘Shrew’ and ‘Pericles’ captivate at Stratford Festival
STRATFORD, Ontario — A Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and a bawdy Shakespeare comedy are not such an odd couple when you get to the heart of the matter. “The Sound of Music” asks and answers the question, How do you solve a problem like a free-spirited novitiate? In the case of “The Taming of the Shrew,” the answer is the title.
Love, ultimately, is the solution, in productions seen in one day recently at Stratford’s Festival Theatre. That’s no surprise for the beloved family musical about the real-life Von Trapp family, but for the Bard’s work, some softening of tone and torture make this “Taming” perhaps more palatable to today’s audiences.
Here’s a close-up look at both and other samplings of the 2015 Stratford Festival.
“The Sound of Music” (Festival Theatre, through Oct. 18)
First up was this beautiful revival, with a delightful central performance by Stephanie Rothenberg as Maria. She alone makes this worth a look, even if you’ve seen the show more than a few times, and the seven Von Trapp children have been carefully selected for optimum talent and cuteness. Ben Carlson is a solid Captain Von Trapp, and certainly the only one I’ve seen morph into “Taming of the Shrew’s” Petruchio in fewer than 24 hours.
A talented ensemble helps director-choreographer Donna Feore borrow a page from Broadway’s “An American in Paris,” allowing for some organic set changes with pieces danced into place, including topiaries finished off with a rhythmic clip-clip of shears.
The program explains the long search that led to the casting of the American actress Ms. Rothenberg, who had a Broadway stint in the revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” She is a luminous presence in numbers from the title song to “My Favorite Things,” and just like every member of the Von Trapp family, we miss her when she’s not onstage.
The story by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse is as timeless as it is well played here. The looming arrival of the Nazis to Austria is never far from anyone’s mind, and when the invasion does come, its effect on one prominent family comes to ominous life as swastikas unfurl over their idyllic world.
In the Festival Theatre, the largest of Stratford’s venues, the lighting and sound were among my favorite things, the better to see and hear a classic given its due.
“The Taming of the Shrew” (Festival Theatre, through Oct. 10)
The turnaround of the Festival to a long, narrow thrust for Mr. Carlson and his real-life wife, Deborah Hay, to fight their way to something like marital bliss is a feat of Stratford’s ingenuity.
The show begins with actors dressing onstage and Tom Rooney (a hoot as the comedic servant Tranio) telling the audience that, in his eight seasons at Stratford, this is the first time he has worn “pumpkin pants.” Suddenly, ushers hurry down the aisle to remove a man making a disturbance. The culprit is revealed as the Christopher Sly of the original work, a drunkard fooled into thinking he is a lord and then treated to the story of fiery Katherine, who resists all attempts to woo her, and resolute Petruchio, who is seeking his fortune through marriage.
Katherine’s younger sister has suitors and would gladly wed, but their father insists that his older daughter must be wed first, and in this, Petruchio declares himself the man for the job. For Petruchio’s attempt to turn his Kate from obstinate to docile, Shakespeare devises a number of tortures, including food and sleep deprivation.
Misogynistic attitudes permeate the story, but in this production, Petruchio seems more in love than in haste to master his defiant wife. He tempts her with food but never eats himself; he keeps her awake, which means he does not sleep. And there is no sexual assault here as in the play, but rather, we find exhausted Petruchio entreating the audience to please tell him if they know of any other way to tame a shrew.
Ms. Hay, who also played dual roles in Shakespeare’s “The Adventures of Pericles,” has a face that delivers emotions by the score. Her rage at everyone trying to break her spirit is palpable, and it’s still disturbing to think of her as broken for the sake of becoming a dutiful wife.
“The Adventures of Pericles” (Tom Patterson Theatre, through Sept. 19)
Incest! Romance! Betrayal! And can you count on anyone to stay dead? It may sound like “Game of Thrones,” but Shakespeare was around long before “GoT” became the go-to fantasy adventure.
Scholars believe “Pericles” was created with collaborator George Wilkins, who wrote an accompanying novel, although other names have been suggested as contributors to this epic tragicomedy.
The title character, played from vigor to old age by Evan Buliung, is carried on stormy waves — some manmade, some of the watery kind — to discover love and then to lose it. For the second time in less than a week, we saw a toy ship representing a life-sized one caught in a storm (“Peter and the Starcatcher” at the Shaw Festival used the same device), and in this minimalist production, the deck was delineated by the stretch of a rope.
In the midst of it all is Pericles, never quite able to hold onto happiness. It all seems so unfair.
In his reckless youth, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, tries to win the hand of the daughter of King Antiochus, who insists suitors solve a riddle or perish. In solving it, though, Pericles realizes that there’s an incestuous relationship between father and daughter, and he is doomed anyway. As Pericles runs from the threat, he is shipwrecked in a storm and finds true love with Thaisa (Deborah Hay).
At sea again, she gives birth during another storm and her body is given to the sea. Pericles delivers his daughter, Marina, into what he believes to be safe hands before settling into a life of despair. His fate is not yet