The Two Gentlemen of Verona
by William Shakespeare
Georgia Shakespeare Festival, in repertory through August 11
(Notes written in July, Year 2)
No one else's genius can improve Shakespeare's genius, right? Does that mean that if Shakespeare's genius produces a creepy and slightly lame comedy then the director, designers and cast can't make it different?
Apparently yes, it does mean that. The Georgia Shakespeare production may have been as good as Two Gents can get, but still it followed the wonky logic and the shabby ethics right to Shakespeare's extreme, and as a result it left me needing to wash my hands.
The festival model leads companies to put up shows they otherwise might not have chosen, so it doesn't make sense to dispute the selection. Georgia Shakespeare wisely elected not to pair this with another title from the canon, not this weekend anyway, and they earn points for that decision. (The festival has gone through the list about twice, plus multiple productions of favorites such as Shrew and R&J.)
Director Tim Ocel and designers Ramsey Avery (sets) and B. Modern (costumes) placed the action in some amalgam of West Side Story and Men of Respect. The authority of the father figures was clear as a result, but on the other hand we had to endure a simulated sexual passage between Proteus (Brad Sherrill) and Julia (Cynthia Barrett). What you loses on the swings you makes up on the roundabouts. I suppose it was simulated; since the lighting (by Ken Yunker) mercifully went rather low for that scene, I can only judge by the vocal effects and the undergarment preset at Center Stage.
Sherrill and Daniel May as Valentine looked good and had fun with their parts, such as they were; the lines to my mind simply invite gabbling, and there was some. Silvia (Park Krausen) came off well as a Cosa Nostra heiress with compassion. Rob Cleveland as Speed, the bicycle messenger, made a hit with the audience but passed into the shade whenever manservant Launce (Tommy A. Gomez) appeared with Crab (Homer, a 135-pound mastiff playing a really, really dim 135-pound mastiff).
Here's the way I figure it: Two Gents was Shakespeare's warmup piece and could well have been, um, "misplaced" around about 1610 with no harm to the Bard's reputation. If you hold yourself out as a Shakespeare festival you do it now and again; otherwise, you revive Henry V or Pippin. See this if you haven't already checked it off on your life list.
Also in rep this summer: Death of a Salesman and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
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Two Gentlemen of Verona