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| Once again, Beatrice gets the better of Benedick photo: Gerry Goodstein |
TFANA at the Duke on 42nd
Street
directed by Arin Arbus
Feb. 16, 2013
Happily, this taut
Off-Broadway staging of Much Ado is less schmaltzy than most
versions, approaching the play as an adult romance rather than a
romantic comedy. In a nod to the script's characterization of
Beatrice & Benedick's relationship as a “merry war”, director
Arin Arbus shows an Italian court where men woo women with salvos of
wit and negotiate marriages like they do treaties. It's no
surprise when, in the play's main plot, a young aristo too readily
doubts his fiancee's fidelity, since he's always approached romance
with suspicion. And if love is a battlefield, Beatrice and Benedick are
Hector and Achilles. In that stupendous scene where Beatrice requests
that Benedick “Kill Claudio”, she redraws the battle lines, and
Benedick's acceptance of her charge suggests the brokerage of a
separate peace.
Onstage too, the
performers stand above their peers. Maggie Siff (who played a superb
Kate in Taming of the Shrew last season) suggests that Beatrice hides
a lonely soul with a tart tongue and chilly demeanor. Her stage
partner, Jonathan Cake, shows less depth but more range, charming the
audience with direct-address and arguing himself into love in
soliloquies. A sweet scene on a swing together, fishing for
compliments from each other and getting teased instead, makes
superfluous their grudging admissions of affection in the final
scene. The duo don't have perfect chemistry but they're talented
enough—and the script's done so much already—that they're still a pleasure to watch.
The play's two
other keys are Don John and Dogberry; one instigates the main plot
and the other inadvertently unravels it. Both are tough roles to
play. The motiveless malignance of John implies a full psyche, smart
but antisocial (an extreme version of Bea and maybe Ben); in the
role, Saxon Palmer relishes how the character hides his nature. Like
the villain, the citizen-constable cannot articulate his deeper
thoughts, but unlike John he utterly lacks guile. His foolery can get
tiresome in many productions, but John Christopher Jones coaxes
inspired laughs from his cracked vocal chords. The rest of the cast
gives workmanlike performances, though a few servants make the most
of their stage-time.
The stage
(designed by Riccardo Hernandez) is simple: a raised playing area of
wooden tile, ringed by realistic turf and a tree and bench
upstage-right. The lighting (Donald Holder) is a little more complex,
and consequently a little more fussy. The costuming (Constance
Hoffman) sets the period, for no reason good or bad, in the Sicily of
a century ago. But in general, the design stays out of the way so the
actors' and the script can act the play. In this respect, Arbus' Much
Ado doesn't surprise the audience with radical or unexpected
interpretations. It's a professional production of a pleasurable
play, accessible and satisfying.
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Much Ado About Nothing plays at
the Duke Theater through March 24. Tickets?
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