Non-traditional WHAT takes Moliere to School
Shakespeare on the Cape troupe features emerging stars
By Heather Wysocki
news@barnstablepatriot.com
Traditionally, arranged marriages and women lacking in worldly knowledge are commonplace on stage.
Traditionally, Moliere comedies feature corsets and bonnets, powdered wigs and elaborate words.
Traditionally, a play’s heroine wouldn’t be played by a man.
But Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre doesn’t concern itself with the traditional, mundane or expected aspects of theater.
Instead, its avant-garde approach to the stage leaves a little to the imagination in the way of scenery (think boxes and drapes rather than balconies and dramatic entryways) but a clear view of WHAT’s main focus: the acting.
In its most recent presentation of a classic, French playwright Moliere’s School For Wives, WHAT’s modern take on things is a much more refreshing way to see the show.
As the first guest production on the new Julie Harris Stage, Wives’ Shakespeare on the Cape group does a great job of bringing a dusty 18th century production very far into the 21st century.
The group shuns traditions, choosing instead to have women play men (in a variety of roles) and men play women (Ben Griessmeyer as the play’s young innocent turned scheming lover Agnés). Everyone plays their roles perfectly and with an experience that belies the troupe’s collective youth.
Wives focuses on Arnolphe, a rich French landowner whose only wish is an innocent (read: naïve, unlearned and a little simple) wife to spend the rest of his days with. To accomplish this, he borrows a peasant woman’s daughter, sends her to a convent and is now looking forward, some years later, to marrying the girl.
Though Agnés is indeed all the things Arnolphe wished, her innocence leads her to fall in love with the town’s resident eligible bachelor, the somewhat geeky but extremely endearing Horace (Jack Matheson).
After listening to Horace’s lavish declarations of love and Agnés’ slightly silly version of the same, Arnolphe decides to marry Agnés anyway and deal with the young couples’ misery by splitting them apart forever. Of course, in good comedic fashion, he loses, and the results are hilarious.
Though not much can be said for the scenery, as it consists of only a few well-placed boxes, or the costumes (a simple but elegant collection of flowing white dresses and shirts with the occasional well-placed color) the group more than makes up for it with the witty turns they take onstage.
In a star-making performance as the scheming aristocrat Arnolphe, Elliot Eustis could carry the play alone, and indeed does exactly that during his many soliloquies and asides. His expressions convey exactly what the character is feeling, and his sulking and skulking add even more to his portrayal.
Eustis takes the old fool of Moliere’s original from blundering and antiquated to bitter and vengeful in the time it takes him to walk across the stage. His ups and downs are what keep the play going.
As his convent-raised ward Agnés, Griessmeyer is hilarious. In a nightgown, garish makeup and yarn pigtails he primly romps across the stage, engages in sobbing fits and spontaneously bursts into song – in soprano.
If one glances down, say to staunch their almost continuous laughter, it would be easy to mistake Griessmeyer’s voice for someone of the role’s traditional sex – and in this case, it’s a compliment.
As Horace, starry-eyed suitor, Matheson is good. Though his character’s presence isn’t as large as others, his acting is absolutely on par with theirs.
Other troupe members, including Arnolphe’s kooky maid and butler (Elizabeth Stahlmann and Grant Heuke) and Arnolphe’s comrade and conscience Chrysalde (Amanda C. Fuller, in another great casting), tie the play’s somewhat disparate scenes together with wit and charm.
In a much smaller part, Whitney F. Hudson as Horace’s father is absolutely brilliant. Her drink-swilling, word-jumbling ways, though only a part of the play for about ten minutes, stand out as the funniest ten minutes in a delightfully kooky and humorous two hours.
Apart, Shakespeare on the Cape’s young actors are great. Together they’re even better. Their communication onstage, their choice of casting and the little extras they add to the show (sound effects, sporadic dancing, etc.) flow flawlessly.
If you’re looking for a traditional take on an extremely traditional (but always funny) play, or want an easy evening of just-so theater, don’t bother with WHAT’s School for Wives, a work neither traditional nor just-so.
But if you’re looking for a modern, far-reaching and still-relevant take on the classic comedy, WHAT’s got what you need. The superb cast will have you thinking and laughing. More than that, though, they’ll have you coming back for more.
Moliere’s School for Wives shows Sundays and Mondays at 8:15 p.m. through Aug. 27 on Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater’s Julie Harris Stage, 2357 Route 6 in Wellfleet. Tickets ($29) are available at http://www.what.org or 508-349-WHAT.
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Publication Date: 08/10/07
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