Two comedies (one by Shakespeare and the other by one of his contemporaries, Thomas Dekker) and a classic drama fill the Elizabethan-style Adams Memorial Shakespearean Theatre stage. In addition, "As You Like It" has matinee performances in the adjacent Auditorium Theatre on the Southern Utah University campus.
Daniel Robinson designed the scenery for all three Adams productions - larger-than-life gargoyles flanking the stage for "Richard III," the hint of a whimsical forest for "As You Like It" and sepia-tone sketches of London for "The Shoemaker's Holiday." No high-tech, razzle-dazzle sets on the outdoor stage. The productions here are, traditionally, pretty much like the audiences in Shakespeare's time might have seen them.
- RICHARD III may be categorized as a "history" in Shakespeare's canon, but, to be realistic, it falls more into the "tragedy" mode.
The playwright, apparently wanting to keep on the good side of Queen Elizabeth's purse strings, played fast and loose with the historical facts . . . which, to some extent, had already been distorted by previous historians. One wonders what the Fleet Street tabloid press, if it had been around back then, would have done with all of this material.
Gary Armagnac, last seen at the USF in 1982 as Falstaff in "Henry IV, Part I" and as Friar Laurence in `Romeo and Juliet," gives a bravura performance in the title role of "Richard III," a man obsessed with power.
Played with a frightening, Jack Nicholson-style leer, Armagnac's Richard comes off more like a deadly court jester instead of a regal monarch.
"Now is the winter of our discontent . . . " announces Richard in his famous first-act soliloquy, setting the stage for his masterminded bloodshed to follow.
By the time the battle lines are drawn in Bosworth Field nearly two and one-half hours later, the body count from Richard's murderous maneuverings is fairly high. Men, women, children - anyone who might stand in his way en route to the throne - are fair game.
In Shakespeare's hands, Richard III is a charismatic and extremely witty leader, cracking jokes even while he plots the murder of his brother, the Duke of Clarence. He's as paranoid and vicious as he is brilliant, cleverly and gleefully scheming his various enemies' demises.
While this is Armagnac's show all the way, there are a number of other noteworthy performances, including George Judy as the doomed Lord Hastings, Candice Brown as the aged and crippled Duchess of York (her regal demeanor reminded me of Helen Hayes), and Elizabeth Terry as Elizabeth, wife of King Edward IV, whose young sons - Grey and Dorset - are consigned to the Tower of London, never to be seen again.
Considering the dark tone of this piece - a madman plotting one murder after another - "Richard III" is surprisingly comedic at times and has the potential for much more violence than is depicted.
Even more jarring, though, is the play's relevance in the 1990s, where grisly murders become bizarre media events and we turn criminals into national heros.
- Sensitivity rating: Violence, some vulgarity. One brief, but particularly grisly scene where the head of recently decapitated Lord Hastings, inside of a cloth sack, is tossed around like a ball.
- AS YOU LIKE IT - Like many Shakespearean comedies, this is a merry blend of romantic mix-ups, disguised lovers and a cadre of fairly typical characters - the kind you find in most of the Bard's lighter fare.
The central characters are Orlando, an energetic and strapping young man, and Rosalind, daughter of an exiled French duke, who are very much in love. But, as in most Shakespeare comedies, simply being in love is not that easy.
Being the genius he was, the playwright brazenly manipulates his characters through all kinds of delightful situations. But by the time the play comes to its inevitable happily-ever-after ending, four couples are wed and the magical Forest of Arden is the site of much rejoicing.
And, as in the festival's five other main-stage plays, there are performances aplenty to enjoy and savor. In the forefront are Tobin Atkinson and Suzanne Cryer as Orlando and Rosalind, the young lovers.
Then there's this season's resident buffoon - Andy Paterson - as Touchstone, who provides enthusiastic and humorous cynicism, with Sheridan Crist as Jaques, Peter Sham as Silvius and Tyler Layton as Rosalind's cousin and confidant, Celia.
Even better, patrons get a double dose of Gary Armagnac, who is cast as both the exiled Duke Senior and his usurping brother, Duke Frederick.
- Sensitivity rating: Some Elizabethan bawdiness, vulgarity and gestures, but mostly it's romantic fun and games.
- THE SHOEMAKER'S HOLIDAY - If an unsuspecting viewer stumbled into this without any prior knowledge and didn't have a playbill listing "by Thomas Dekker" beneath the title, he might wonder of this wasn't a long-lost Shakespeare comedy.
It certainly has all the familiar elements of Elizabethan comedy: romance, bawdy humor, an aristocrats vs. the commonfolk theme, some colorfully salty language and a batch of equally colorful characters.
One of the most cherished books in my slowly expanding Shakespeare collection is Wayne F. Hill and Cynthia J. Ottchen's "Shakespeare's Insults: Educating Your Wit," more than 300 pages of deliciously outrageous affronts. But Simon Eyre, Dekker's "Shoemaker," spouts a constant string of insulting names - frequently directed toward his wife, Margery.
"You soused conger (pickled eel) . . . you mad Hyperboreans . . . you Islington whitepot . . . you hopperarse . . . you barley pudding full of maggots . . . you broiled carbonado . . . you cracked groats . . . you mustard tokens . . . " are just some of the insults he hurls at both Margery and others.
Director Norman Ayrton, who hails from Britain, is working with a large, but uniformly strong, cast.
For starters, Randy Moore is wonderful as Eyre, who rapidly rises from proprietor of a shoemaking shop to become Lord Mayer of London. This sort of political humor (OK . . . humour) must have throughly delighted the Elizabethan audiences.
His journeyman cobblers include Firk (Wayne Pyle), who contributes most of the show's bawdy remarks and equally risque gestures, and foreigner Hans Meulter (actually Roland Lacy, the earl of Lincoln's nephew in disguise), played by Brian Kurlander, with Tyler Layton as Rose, who's in love with Lacy, and Leslie Brott as Sybil, Rose's wise-cracking maid.
Other notable performers are Laurie Birmingham as Margery, Suzanne Cryer as Jane, David Janoviak as Ralph, Mikel MacDonald as Sir Hugh Lacy and Robert G. Anderson as Hammon.
While "The Shoemaker's Holiday" isn't as well-known as Shakespeare's works, it is a fascinating and enjoyable look at life in workday Elizabethan London, offering festival patrons a rare opportunity to see a play written by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries.
Bill Black's costuming is right on target, especially those for Simon and Margery, depicting the changes in their attire along with their upward mobility in London society.
- Sensitivity rating: Some Elizabethan vulgarity and bawdiness. If you don't understand Firk's words, the outrageous gestures will be obvious.