Stand-Up Comedies

We that are true lovers run into strange caperS: Karen Peakes and Allen Radway swoon in the Forest of Arden in Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival's As You Like It.
Photo By: john Bansemer

by Toby Zinman

Within the space of a month, there are two productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and two of Hamlet, with Lantern's very funny production of Much Ado About Nothing and Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival's charming As You Like It making enjoyable additions to the list. The Philly Fan (of Shakespeare, that is) has much to choose from.

Frank X gives a delicious performance as Much Ado's Benedick, the woman-resistant, marriage-phobic soldier just returned from the wars who — to everyone's surprise, especially his own — falls for Beatrice (Karen Vicks), the man-resistant, marriage-phobic niece of Leonato (H. Michael Walls). He is their host and father to Hero (Marla Burkholder), whose romance with Claudio (Brendon Gawel) creates the complicated series of betrayals and redemptions that drive the play's plot. Overseeing all the wooing is the excellent Joe Guzman as Don Pedro, and providing comic relief is Dave Jadico, who plays the entire town watch as well as Dogberry. Frank X, Joe Guzman and Brendon Gawel double as the villains, one of director Charles McMahon's many shrewd and amusing decisions.

Beatrice and Benedick's "merry war" is the essence of the play's charm; the two characters should be so well-matched in lively spirit, in clever banter, and in sexual defensiveness that we are delighted by their finally yielding to the biological imperative: "The world must be peopled!" This production — and their love affair — feels lopsided because Karen Vicks, although appealing, lacks the stage presence and the clarity of voice necessary for a really tip-top Beatrice, one of the great female comic roles. Vicks often takes the easy, flirty, coy approach rather than projecting a more complex personality and a sharper mind.

This cuteness, shared by Margaret (Rainey Lacey), undoes the one serious scene when their sunlit world turns dark and nasty, and the characters have to reveal another aspect of their humanity by turning solemn and unsmiling themselves — and they don't. Only Frank X can get away with hiding in the audience as though we were an orchard, and he earns getting away with it because he never overplays his hand. He can also speak the pentameter as though it were the most natural language in the world.

The set design (Nick Embree) is simple and festive, although the costumes (Millie Hiibel) are confusing because seemingly mismatched by place and era, not to mention unflattering.

As You Like It more or less defines Shakespearean pastoral, since much of the play takes place in Arden, the magical forest where love triumphs over the pretensions and wickedness of the royal court. This comedy goes Much Ado two better by ending with four weddings, and weddings are the very essence of comedy: couples united in happy futures as the play ends.

AYLI begins when the wicked Duke banishes his niece, Rosalind, having already exiled her father. His daughter, Celia, Rosalind's inseparable friend, decides they should run off to the forest of Arden together with Rosalind disguised as a young man. In the course of things, they meet Orlando, cheated of his heritage by his wicked brother. Orlando and Rosalind, having met once briefly in the "normal" world, fall in love at first sight. Thus, when they meet again in Arden with Rosalind disguised as a young man and Orlando sticking love poems up onto every tree in the forest, the plot predictably thickens.

Leading the cast with consummate professionalism is Karen Peakes, whose Rosalind (and Ganymede) is delightful; the first scenes with Celia (Heather Krause) are cloying in their girlishness (lose the stuffed animals!), but things improve quickly. As Orlando, Allen Radway conveys the noble modesty of the character with great grace, and Buck Schirner as Jaques gives a good, if not particularly moving, reading of the famous "Seven Ages of Man" speech. Jim Bergwall is convincing as both the bad duke and the good farmer, and Courtney Custer does an adorable comic turn as the shepherdess, Audrey. The costumes, designed by Vicki Esposito, are impressive.

There is much music throughout, and the ensemble wedding dance that ends the play in traditional Renaissance fashion is lovely, but as is the case with much of this production, director Carmen Khan could pick up the tempo — especially since she has, for the most part, a cast who can speak the language with clarity and naturalness, making the ridiculously convoluted plot quite lucid.

Philly Shakes is offering this sweet production in rep with Hamlet (opening April 22), and the two productions share actors. They are making a festival of it with free discussions, lectures and a birthday party for Shakespeare's 441st on April 23.

Much Ado About Nothing Through May 1, Lantern Theater Company at St. Stephen's Theater, 10th and Ludlow sts., 215-829-9002 AS YOU LIKE IT Through May 28, Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, 2111 Sansom St., 215-496-8001