AISLE SAY Toronto
SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER
by Oliver Goldsmith
Directed by Nicholas Martin
at Williamstown Theater Festival
/Main Stage July 27-August 7
She Stoops to Conquer is currently onstage at the
Williamstown Theater Festival until
August 7. This production boasts a lovely design, a clear reading of the text
and a spirit that debunks any who think that Classical Theatre is fit only for
the classroom or the dusty storage space of a museum. Nicholas Martin,
who has directed, understands very well the balancing act required in being
true to the language of this eighteenth century comedy at the same time that he
is working with a twenty-first century audience.
The story of the
Hardcastles’ daughter and niece, both eligible young women, and the men who
will eventually marry them is stocked with familiar situations, identity
disguises, and pompous, over-the-top characters. But it is also grounded in a
sensibility that transcends time and is as current as most plays being written
today. Love’s universal power is what settles the raucous scenes and the
hyperactive caricatured folks parading across the stage. In the mouths of the
young Kate Hardcastle (Mia Barron)
and Charles Marlow (Jon Patrick Walker),
Goldsmith’s direct analysis of love and humanity is rather inspiring to hear in
a theatre (not Williamstown, specifically, but any theatre) probably more tuned
to cynicism and contemporary angst.
For much that is
very good, the chief problem with Martin’s production is an uneasy blend of
acting styles. On the one hand, there are Paxton
Whitehead and Richard Easton
providing sterling proof that language is power enough to mesmerize the
observer, and on the other there are Brooks
Ashmanskas and, less stridently but still over energized, Kristine Nielsen. Ashmanskas, in
particular, seems to inhabit a world where he alone exists. No single move or
line can be delivered without his resorting to curlicues in body language,
flourishes of hands and feet – even his exits are parcels of punctuation
marks.
And sandwiched
between are the four young characters whose roles don’t offer the same
potential for excess – and they stay true to the lives of heir respective
characters. Barron is an affecting and fully realized Kate Hardcastle, Holley Fain is possessed of a smaller
voice and a lesser role but holds her own with growing assurance. Jeremy Webb is a strong match for Fain
and also finds plenty of room for establishing his rightful place as a noble
suitor. Walker, as the romantic young Marlow, is best when he plays the
language and purpose of his scenes – he is far less interesting when,
early on, he uses pratfalls and bumbling-stumbling, a la Hugh Grant.
The stage at
Williamstown is almost always well designed – David Korins’ set is among the best I’ve seen, not only for its
evocation of another time and place, but also for allowing the full range of
this large stage to be inhabited without trying to show it off. Gabriel Berry’s costume design also
serves to remind us that Williamstown is a major theatre with its focus clearly
aimed at mounting the finest work possible.
Production costs
and box office income, that bedeviling combination, challenge every company at
almost every programming turn. For Williamstown to mount The Goldsmith comedy
in this season is bold and beautiful.
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