Last night, I attended the open dress rehearsal of a USC School of Theater fueled play entitled The Beaux' Stratagem. It is a very old play, scribed sometime in the 18th century by George Farquhar, and though it was not rewritten by the school's director (a jolly professional-actor-turned-professor named Michael Keenan), it was "adapted" in 2000 for more contemporary audiences. The dialogue in particular has been retouched, as far as I could tell, sometimes breaking the century-old age barrier for the possible sake of youthful inclusion.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the play (I don't have the opportunity to attend many), I have to note that the newer material was a bit annoying at times (notably in the character of Lady Bountiful), sometimes taking me out of the moment entirely, an issue stemming from a break in flow of streamy period dialogue to modern, lazy American English. Nevertheless, the beauty of the original environment and the dramatic girth of the plot shone bright throughout.
As for the actors: all students of the School of Theater, all brilliant, two in particular:
Peter Erian, dressed in regal garb and furnishing a mean goatee, evokes the spirits of Captain Hook and Frank Zappa, an eccentric, wide-ranging performer who stole the show every moment he appeared. He sense of character was complete and concrete, as was the interpretation of Cherry, the naive inn-taker's daughter, one of promiscuous tastes and witty speech, fulfilled to the fullest extent by Veronika Dash.
Above all, the directing was spot-on, a humble, sweet interpretation of a period piece. With no flagrancies or overly ambitious attempts at commanding the audience, Mr. Keenan delivers a world interpreted through simple Victorian sets, amorous seduction, anticipated sword fights, and a Shakespearean conclusion. Overall, clocking in at 2 hours, this is a play well worth being told, and well worth the experience (a meager $5).
The Beaux' Stratagem plays at the McClintock Theatre:
October 21 - 7 PM
October 22 - 7 PM
October 23 - 7 PM
October 24 - 2:30 PM & 8 PM
October 25 - 2:30 PM
You can purchase tickets online at www.usc.edu/spectrum, at the USC ticket office, or you can arrive an hour before the show and put your name on the 'Rush List'.
Cody- I really appreciated your thoughtful review of Beaux. I could particularly relate to some of your criticisms of the piece. While I did not get the chance to see this show in particular, I have had similar issues with many of the other shows I’ve seen here and they tend to take a famous, comedic period piece and do much the same thing with it every year.
ReplyDeleteWhile these shows are almost inevitably entertaining and clearly well thought out, I tend to get really irritated with they reduce the essential meaning of a play by making it more conducive to the laughter of the modern audience. I almost never think getting a quick laugh is worth altering the integrity of a play.
Finally, I have worked with both Peter and Veronika before and they are amazing actors indeed! It is always nice to see people who are willing to throw themselves into their given set of circumstances so willingly as I know they both do.
I wish I would have seen this post earlier and I would have recommended The Bluest Eye to you, Anita Sparks is another SOT director who tends to put on plays that are very powerful and intelligent, so keep an eye out for her!
I love that you reviewed The Beaux Stratagem! I got a chance to see this play on the Friday night of the run (I'm pretty sure it was Parent's Weekend) and really loved it. I'm a theatre major so I have an extra special appreciation for the acting and directing, but I was particularly impressed with this production. I've had classes with both Veronika and Peter, and was so excited to see the work that they did in creating the characters of (whatever Peter's pirate-like character was named) and Cherry.
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting is that I didn't seem to notice or be bothered by the "adapted" sections of play, but I did feel that the language was far less convoluted than I had expected. I'm guessing that would be as a result of the adaptation. Anyway, I'm always glad to hear of people supporting the School of Theatre and seeing these fabulous productions, so I'm happy that you liked the show! Also, great pic of Veronika!
I was there that night remember! I enjoyed it as well and thought overall the acting was pretty good. And I do not dislike the adaptations as much as you do. I think it is more than necessary to reword old works for the sake of the audience. If your audience has no idea what is going on than it doesn’t matter how eloquent the speech is. Also, I tend to think modern American English is more efficient than lazy. I’m glad you liked Peter’s performance. I thought he was very good as well and cast him for my second 475. He’s a really cool dude.
ReplyDeleteI attended this show as well and almost entirely agree with you about the transliteration of the dialogue into the modern notation - it didn't quite work all the time. I also agree with you about the stronger performances, including Peter Erian (whom I also cast in my 475 that I'm currently working on) and Veronika Dash, who could have fallen into the pitfall of playing her character as too weak, but came off as a strong presence. I'd like to add to the stand-out performances though, Matthew Salvatore, who I think gave a great performance as the lead player and should be in more films and productions.
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