‘The Liar’ is hilarious comedy in Lenox 

By David Begelman

Theater Critic

 

           Pierre Corneille was one of those writers of French tragedy for whom humor

 

 was a sleeping giant. After all, his first drama, “Mélite” was a comedy. It represented

 

 a deviant example of the farcical style in disfavor among seventeenth century French

 

 intelligentsia, and was peddled to a group of traveling players in 1629. They happily

 

 incorporated it into their repertoire.

The playwright was forever hassled by authorities like Cardinal Richelieu (the real life prelate who was the nemesis of “The Three Musketeers” in the fictional Dumas novel) and his hand-picked toadies in the Académie Francaise. Corneille refused to abide by the dramatic conventions of the day, leaning as they did on Aristotle’s rules for drama. He went so far as coauthoring a work with Molière, a playwright who likewise had to deal with accusations of immorality. (In those days, bad drama was an affront to heaven.)

But there was light at the end of the tunnel: witness “The Liar” (Le Menteur), authored in 1643. Today it may be hard to capture the flavor the play had for audiences of its time. After all, it was penned in French, and debuted in the early modern period of history.

Whatever the separate contributions of author, a riotously clever adaptation of the play by David Ives (in rhyming blank verse, to boot), and the hugely inventive direction of Kevin G. Coleman, Shakespeare & Company’s current version of the comedy is something to savor, whatever the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” audiences must cope with these days, to quote a contemporary of Corneille’s.

Coleman has hit just the right note with his company of eight seasoned performers. And he couldn’t resist the temptation to lace the dialogue with quotes from the dramas of the English guy. Included in the Ives adaptation are lines borrowed from “Antony and Cleopatra,” “Othello,” “As You Like It,” and other familiar plays of the bard. Oddly enough, they work beautifully in this comedy, a play in which all characters have to bounce—happily or otherwise—off the fabrications of its central character, Dorante.

David Joseph tackles the role of intransigent liar with gusto, as though telling whoppers were second nature to him. He and his fellow performers maintain a perfect pacing in the dialogue, often a rapid-fire verbal barrage in which all characters face the challenge of coming up for air.

Ives and Coleman are not above the use of contemporary idiom to spruce up interactions. “She called you a liar,” says one character. “Why?” queries another. “Maybe because your pants are on fire” is the response. Not exactly in the seventeenth century mode, but funny all the same.

Douglas Seldin is Cliton, Dorante’s stocky servant, whose asides to the audience have you on the floor. Emily Rose Ehlinger and Alexandra Lincoln are Lucrece and Clarice, alternating deliciously as objects of Dorante’s shifting attentions. Enrico Spada is fittingly agitated and furious as Dorante’s competitor, while Jake Berger as Geronte and Marcus Kearns as Philiste attempt to make the most of the paternal and friendship mode in the topsy-turvy world manufactured by Dorante’s continuing vacations from the truth. Dana Harrison supplies exceedingly comic interpretations of her double role as Isabelle and Sabine.

All in all, a production to tickle your funny bone to the max.

“The Liar” runs through March 24 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MASS. Performances are Friday and Saturday 7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00  p.m. Tickets are $15-$50, and can be purchased by calling the box office at (413)-637-3353, or contacting www.Shakespeare.org

 

 

‘The 39 steps’ is a hoot in Lenox

 

David Begelman, Theater Critic

If you remember the early classic Alfred Hitchcock film, “The 39 Steps,” you’ll probably also feel it can’t hold a candle to later movies directed by the master, like “Vertigo,” “Rear Window” or “The Birds.” And let’s not forget “Psycho,” that blood-curdling romp of bathtub murder laced with some pretty unnerving stuff about a killer who can’t tell the difference between himself and his mother. Murder in all its guises seems to be Hitch’s specialty, thankfully. Where can you come up with a director who can turn something so ugly into a thing of beauty?

No matter. Shakespeare & Company has mounted an innovative riff on John Buchan’s novel, adapted into a 1935 Hitchcock flick starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. The company’s hilarious treatment of the book and movie is so side-splitting funny, you can dispense with what its narrative line is all about. You won’t be able to understand it, anyhow. Just sit back and enjoy the goings on, configured by director Jonathan Croy from an adaptation of the novel and film by Patrick Barlow.

And if you’re shopping around for the best theater in the tri-state area for staging farce, go no farther. It’s Shakespeare & Company all the way. I venture to say the Lenox company is better at this genre than anything else, including Shakespeare. Although artistic director Tony Simotes’ smash hit of the bard’s “As You Like It” was nothing to sneeze at on any accounting. It’s when the company goes serious, as in the recently produced “The Tempest,” its past  “A Winter’s Tale” or “Othello” that the going gets a bit rough.

In the current production, three consummately talented performers take on all the roles. Never mind the obvious cost-cutting, belt tightening measures taken to stage a worthwhile production. The plain truth is that this production is so well directed, so enjoyable, that audiences are filling the Elayne P. Berstein Theatre to the brim. This reviewer had to wend his way through overcrowded seating to find his seat—midway through the run of the comedy, to boot.

In “The 39 Steps,” as in the Hitchcock flick, Richard Hannay (Jason Asprey) is an innocent enough Brit who is attending a London music hall production. Suddenly. Shots are fired, and the rest is history. Hannay is plunged into a world of intrigue, assassination attempts and embroilment in a Nazi scheme to pilfer British military secrets during World War II.

Again, no matter. Three performers take on a bewildering variety of roles that have you at the point of hysteria in audience seats. Asprey is in one role as Richard Hannay, the bewildered hero of the comedy, whereas Elizabeth Aspenlieder appears as three separate characters (mostly vamps). David Joseph takes on 14 roles, including the buck-toothed “Mr. Memory,” not to mention a slew of other unforgettable characters.

Josh Aaron McCabe, a talent for all seasons if ever there was, plays 15 separate characters, including women, old and young. It’s the rapid costume changes and sudden alterations of character that have you riveted in merriment over the course of the two-act comedy. See it.

“The 39 Steps” runs through November 4 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, Mass. Performances are Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 7:30 p.m., Sunday matinees 2 p.m. Tickets are $15-$50 and may be purchased by calling the box office at 413-637-3353 or online at www.shakespeare.org.