‘Triumph of Love’ is buoyed by youthful energy
Ariel Dumas (left) and Amanda Fuller in the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater production of “Triumph of Love.” (JIM DALGLISH)WELLFLEET – Costumes of brocade and denim, music Baroque and rock, attitudes sincere and silly: These are the invigoratingly contrasting elements of the young Shakespeare on the Cape company’s production of “Triumph of Love” – by Marivaux, bien sur, not the Bard – at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater.
WHAT invited this exuberant troupe, mostly comprising recent graduates of the Guthrie Theater’s acting program at the University of Minnesota, to present Moliere’s “School for Wives” last season. That experiment proved popular enough that the company has not only returned to Wellfleet this year but is also presenting different shows at Truro’s Payomet Performing Arts Center and in other venues around the Cape.
Shakespeare on the Cape’s greatest asset, its youthful vitality, occasionally works against it in this production; the actors playing a middle-aged brother-sister pair of emotionally stunted scholars are a couple of decades too young for the parts. The good news, though, is that they’re highly skilled, fully engaged, and a lot of fun to watch – as is the rest of the cast in Jason Bohon’s lively, quick-witted production.
And even if the actors’ youth didn’t strain credulity, Marivaux’s plot just might. Princess Leonide (Amanda Fuller), whose father usurped the throne, has fallen in love with the rightful heir, Agis (Daniel Jimenez), who was spirited away after the coup and has been raised in secret by his aunt and uncle, Leontine and Hermocrate, the aforementioned scholars. So Leonide arrives in their woodsy retreat, disguised as a man, intending to win Agis’s heart.
Next thing you know, not just Agis but Leontine (Whitney Hudson) and Hermocrate (Jake Ford) are all in love with her: as a man, as a woman, as whatever she needs to be to win her way at a given moment. Meanwhile her maidservant, Corine (Ariel Dumas), also in trousers, has attracted the clownish Harlequin (Ben Griessmeyer), who gets caught up in the scheming and soon involves the gardener, Dimas (Elliot Eustis), who . . .
Well, you know. Round and round, confusion, disillusion, sly commentary on class and gender, and happiness at last. But it’s good giddy fun, and intelligent, too – especially in Stephen Wadsworth’s clean, modern but un-slangy translation. What’s most touching is that Marivaux doesn’t focus only on the lovers’ plight; if anything, the stories of Hermocrate and Leontine, and their slow realization that there’s more to life than books and reason, are more moving than the relatively standard tale of youthful romance between Agis and Leonide.
It all starts off a bit slowly, with great chunks of exposition in the early scenes. But things pick up nicely, and the relaxed but full-bodied physicality of the company’s acting style keeps the energy level high even in the wordiest moments. Thomas Burgess’s simple set – a trio of pastoral paintings as backdrop, some flowers, a bench or so – enhances the mood of effortless grace, as do Andrew Lynch’s eclectic but appropriate musical contributions and the (uncredited) costumes of frock coats and jeans.
No, this “Triumph of Love” doesn’t have the powdered wigs or the restrained and sophisticated performances that you might expect of a 1732 French comedy. But the production does have verve, smarts, and its own sense of style. And that’s plenty.
Louise Kennedy can be reached at kennedy@globe.com.
1 Comment
July 26, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Congratulations on the Boston Globe review! I’m excited for you guys and glad the season is going so well!