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Review: Jacobean sex and revenge, plus a punk cellist
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Michael Hayden and René Augesen play an unorthodox brother and sister in A.C.T.’s “'Tis Pity She's a Whore.”
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Even after almost 400 years after its first performance, there is a problem with the title of John Ford's play. American Conservatory Theater Artistic Director Carey Perloff, whose production of it opened Wednesday, took a direct approach. On signs and in the program, "WHORE" in capital letters is preceded by a smaller "'Tis Pity She's a..."
And so the show went, for nearly three hours, a head-on, in-your-face, blood-and-gore Jacobian revenge tragedy. Nothing was soft-pedaled; there were enough mysterious subplots to fill several episodes of "Lost."
It's the right way to present a play built on brother-sister incest. "'Tis Pity" is a more solid and worthwhile production than A.C.T.'s other explorations of the period, John Webster's 1614 "The Duchess of Malfi" and the deliberately "shocking" homoerotic presentation of Christopher Marlowe's 1594 "Edward II."
Perloff respects the genre: "Jacobean drama is very close, in some ways, to our contemporary experience. It grew out of a culture that was less moderate than Shakespeare's, more extreme. The church was exercising a very repressive influence, and so the rebellion against that was very strong. So this is a very sexy play, a very hot world." (Ford's 1629 play technically falls in the "Caroline" period, named for King Charles I, 1625 to 1649.)
The incest has a Romeo-and-Juliet sense of two against the world, presented with lyricism and convincing passion by Michael Hayden (Giovanni) and René Augesen (Annabella, for whom the play's title is the closing eulogy).
Perloff surrounds them with an outstanding cast: Robert Sicular as their father, Steven Anthony Jones as Friar Bonaventura, Michael Earle Fajardo as Soranzo, Annabella’s husband, Anthony Fusco as his Iago-like servant, along with Gregory Wallace, Sharon Lockwood, James Carpenter and Jack Willis.
The large cast is on a big stage. Walt Spangler's abstract, beaded scenery mysteriously invokes 17th-century Parma, Italy. There are perhaps too many stairs, but the backdrops, Candice Donnelly's costumes and Robert Wierzel's lighting provide a surprisingly appropriate setting.
The single "modernizing" directorial touch is a double-edged sword: Perloff has a composer-vocalist-"punk cellist" Bonfire Madigan Shive on a platform above the stage, providing musical accompaniment.
The good comes early, with sedate background cello sounds; the bad takes over as sounds turn into "music" not worth the name, and then culminates in Shive shrieking through an already over-dramatic scene, diverting attention, adding a touch of the ridiculous to the tragic. The high, and low, points of Ford's tragic excesses need a counterpoint, not attempts to outdo them.
IF YOU GO
'Tis Pity She's a Whore
Where: American Consveratory Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco
When: 8 p.m. most Tuesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays; closes July 6
Tickets: $17 to $82
Contact: (415) 749-2228 or www.act-sf.org
Comments from Examiner Readers
12:06 AM MST on Mon., Oct. 6, 2008 re: "Wicked ‘Witches’"
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re: "A ‘Macbeth’ in the Macbuff"
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Examiner Reader said:
GOOD
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Bessica said:
The government should get out of marriage entirely. Straight or gay, we need good family law to protect children, we need contracts for interdependent relationships. Marriage is an important institution. Rename the legal part something else for EVERYONE. Many GLBT on the site **bisexualmingle c o m** want the same-sex marriage.
8 agree | 8 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I thought it was a great production and both Alexa Ortega and Adam Barry were absolutely fantastic.
23 agree | 16 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The Government Inspector: Quite poorly done. Actors unprepared. Line delivery mishaps. Overpriced. Prop failure at the end. It reminded me of sequels such as Oceans v11 - v13, where a group of well known actors use their names to draw a crowd and sell tickets. Uk. The result is a mediocre performance, in part because of too many cooks -- and some of these cooks, e.g. Geoff Hoyle are really good. Hopefully this review will save someone else the time and money.
24 agree | 17 disagree
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Parkside Poulegene said:
Re: High School Musical I just took my daughter Sharmuta to this show and we had to leave early! When we got home I took away all her "High School Musical" CD's and tee-shirts. If she even mentions the show again she's grounded for a month, and that goes for her other mother too. This show is really racist, homophobic and pro-Zionist and pro-Bush-Terror. There's too many white people in it. This show needs to be shut down and outlawed.
18 agree | 18 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Thank you for the first honest review that I have read on this production. The length of Act two was tortuous to sit through.
391 agree | 338 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I bet the scene where Macbeth and Macduff are branishing their CLAYMORES is a hoot!
307 agree | 320 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Playing naked? Not really - the main character's body is covered by fur! As the reader before wrote the actor playing Macbeth is extremely hairy. It is quite strange to see how hairy a mans body can be... His body hair was the most impressing thing of the whole play.
330 agree | 299 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Bloody, Bold, Resolute, and Naked - AND HAIRY!!! I read an article that all actors were not allowed to shave any body hair three months before the play started to look "naturally". So it is impressive how hairy the actor playing Macbeth is - he has a furry chest and even a quite hairy back and bushy pubic hairs. It is very unusual today to see such a hairy actor fully nude, because normally an actor shaves at least his back hairs doing a nude scene on stage or in a movie... So big compliments to Daniel Eichner for presenting us his great furry body fully nude!
359 agree | 314 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Good review... one of the few critics able to articulate some of the problems with this show. I left at intermission and the lighting was troublesome. sometimes I wonder what the other critics are thinking --- if you are still curious fgo on Saturday afternoons when the tickets are "pay what you can."
393 agree | 351 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Munch claims "there is no denying" that the nudity in WSC's "Macbeth" "does little to enhance or elevate Shakespeare’s Scottish play." Well, the critics at www.PotomacStages.com and www.DCTheatreScene.com have taken the opposite view. Potomac Stages, in fact, wrote: "in no uncertain terms that this is a quality production that presents "the Scottish play" in a new and very effective light (or is that a new and very effective darkness?)." DC Theatre Scene wrote: "The actors’ nudity provides an extra dimension to their presentations...By being physically naked, these actors become emotionally naked as well. This production of Macbeth is a great gift to those who have the will to receive it. We are unlikely to see anything like it in the foreseeable future." So it seems the only thing there is no denying is that Munch doesn't speak for everyone.
411 agree | 320 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Tonight's performance of "Macbeth" started at 8:05 pm and was done precisely at 10:30. I'm not the best at math, but that seems like under 2 and half hours...not over 3 hours, which the critic claims the play to be.
397 agree | 362 disagree
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JaimeK said:
Shame Fat Pig wasn't given an actual review on the acting. There were some pretty phenomenal performances. Especially Erin Riley as Helen and Courtney Ryan as Jeannie. Very VERY good show.
523 agree | 411 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Closes in 4 days
455 agree | 406 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Why review it a few days before it closes and not mention its closing in the review?
447 agree | 436 disagree
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EdnBetty said:
We just returned from Titus Andronicus, the play that Kenneth Tynan called "the worst play Marlowe ever wrote". We expected gore and got it! Tsoutsouvas was also great, but Valerie Leonard was vamping it over the top. And that voice set my teeth on edge!
751 agree | 486 disagree
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Reader said:
Yes, "She Stoops to Comedy" at Woolly Mammoth is a treat!
551 agree | 470 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Oh, we just a-DORed this show!
578 agree | 463 disagree
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