FUN WITH THE MOB
UPDATE OF CLASSIC COMEDY PROMISES SUMMER LAUGHS, COURTESY OF KINETIC THEATRE
Wiseguys in a turf war and an uneasy path to true love under the Florida sun, and bada- bing, bada- boom, Kinetic Theatre has itself some summer fun.
“Scapino” comes from the realm of enduring classical comedy, as seen through a 21st- century lens. The Moliere comedy “Scapin” has been adapted by Broadway actor Jeffrey Binder (“The Lion King’s” Zazu, for one) into a tale of mob bosses trying to marry off their kids to broker a truce, with Binder as the title clown — a disgraced lawyer.
The actor, writer and assistant artistic director of Gulfshore Playhouse, where “Scapino” debuted last year, also moved the play from Naples, Italy, to the sandy shores of Gulfshore’s home, Naples, Fla.
Starting Thursday, “Scapino” has its second production, courtesy of Andrew Paul’s Kinetic Theatre — completing a Pittsburgh-Florida link between the two companies that began with actor David Whalen, who appears in “Scapino” and who introduced the director to Gulfshore, by way of Sherlock Holmes.
Paul has directed “The Hound of the Baskervilles” and “Holmes and Watson” in Pittsburgh and the Florida company, with Binder as his leading man. The actor then gave his director the script for “Scapino,” which had debuted as the most successful production in the Florida company’s 15 years, Binder said.
“I was looking for something to follow up on ‘ The Liar,’ which was a big hit for us in the summertime. I thought, ‘ I need something that kind of does that,’” said Paul of the 17th- century Pierre Corneille play.
“Scapino” was just the thing — a familyfriendly show with 17th- century comedia roots and a contemporary update for wide appeal.
Moliere’s “Scapin” plot remains the bones of the adaptation: fathers trying to marry off a son and daughter to settle a feud, but the son believes in marrying for love, and there’s the rub. The “Godfather”esque setup ups the stakes for potential violence and is a modern touchstone for audiences.
Title character Scapino is a lawyer who has served jail time in service of one of the families and has returned to Naples disgraced, disbarred and ready to retire quietly. But as in “The Godfather III,” he finds, “Just when I thought I was out … they pull me back in.”
Moving the setting from one Naples to the other was “a no- brainer,” said Binder, who sounds brainy, indeed, as he explains his admiration for the great French writer and actor Moliere and his work. The master’s “Scapin” often takes a back seat to his oft- produced works, such as “Tartuffe” and “The Misanthrope,” but its appeal to actors is undeniable.
“Moliere is my favorite classical playwright,” Binder said. “He is so funny and so irreverent, and so I was thrilled to do it. We wanted to do ‘ Scapin’ because it’s eight really juicy roles for actors.”
When “Scapin” has been performed over the years, translations most faithful to Moliere have been, well, “dry,” Paul said.
Versions by Tony- winning actors Jim Dale in the 1970s and Bill Irwin in the 1990s are among the exceptions, said Binder, an admirer of both.
“But clowning is unique to the person,” he explained. “I wanted to rewrite it to play to my strengths and see where that takes me, and to update it to make the danger of the play understandable to an audience in this day and age.”
As you might expect from an updated comedia, Binder also has taken great liberties in rewriting the roles of the women in the story, as well as creating scenes for important developments that, in the original, were communicated verbally.
Moliere was ahead of his time in how the French writer depicted women, “but there was just so far you could go with that in 1677,” Binder said.
For example, the “outsider” woman, in Moliere’s “Scapin,” was written as a “gypsy.” The culture clash in Binder’s play comes from a peace- and- love hippie type, dropped into a world of gangsters.
That role is played by veteran actress Sara Silk, with Morgan Snowden, a rising senior at Point Park University, as the ingenue. The cast also includes Whalen, Ethan Saks, Jack Lafferty and another Floridian, Phillip Taratula, who was in the original Gulfshore production of “Scapino.”
As for that summer fun, the intimate Henry Heymann Theatre is being outfitted for beachgoers, and expect some audience participation.
The director and actor believe that Moliere, who created “Scapin” as a traveling show that moved from small town to small town, would appreciate that connection between cast and audience.
“In this space, we’re all in it together,” Binder said. “I think that’s an homage to comedia dell’arte — let’s laugh together, let’s clap together, let’s all have fun.”