:: Philadelphia City Paper :: Philadelphia Arts, Restaurants, Music, Movies, Jobs, Classifieds, Blogs
Bookmark and Share
ARCHIVES . Articles

August 10-16, 2006

Arts : Theater

Love Me Do

One of William Shakespeare's earliest plays, Two Gentlemen Of Verona has a slapstick quality not unlike The Comedy Of Errors, and overly florid verse reminiscent of Love's Labor's Lost. It also has a weaker plot than either.

Fortunately, director Domenick Scudera — masterful at wringing every laugh from a script while still honoring it — and the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival's impressive Young Professional Company bring the play to life with clarity, skill and wit.

Valentine (Doug Greene) and Proteus (Tim Gross) are lifelong friends, but when Proteus sees Valentine's beloved Silvia (Melissa Lynch), daughter of the Duchess of Milan (Megan Slater), his passion for home girl Julia (Jill Lawrence) evaporates. Proteus betrays Valentine into banishment and schemes against foppish Thurio (Terry Cesarine), Silvia's other suitor. Meanwhile, spurned Julia pursues Proteus disguised — of course — as a boy.

Twisted through all these shenanigans is much talk of love, some of it banal: "If you love her, you cannot see her," says Proteus' servant Speed (Matt Kozusko). Why? "Because love is blind" (ba-bing!). This is still Shakespeare, however, with clever scene-capping couplets and sad-sack Lance's loony conversations with his dog Crab, recited by Scott Robertson and, as the panting pooch, a puppet animated by Brian Weiss.

Strong performances from a genuine ensemble with no weak links make the most of the material. Both Gross' Proteus and Greene's Valentine are ruled by their mercurial passions, while Shakespeare gives the women (Lawrence's wide-eyed Julia and Lynch's perky yet poised Silvia) and the servants (Kozusko's acerbic Speed, Jackie Kay Knox's weary and wise Lucetta) the upper hand both morally and comedically.

Two Gentlemen plays out on the stripped-down PSF thrust stage with just four benches. Most of the production's resources are devoted to Brian Strachan's brilliant costumes, which along with incidental music (a lot of early Beatles tunes) set the play circa 1964. The men sport narrow-legged suits and skinny ties, the women straddle the changing fashions with party dresses and gloves for some and, especially for glamorous Silvia, pastel mini-dresses. The outlaw gang that adopts Valentine — did I mention this story is rather silly? — are beret-wearing, bongo-bopping beatniks.

PSF steals from itself by offering this delicious confection free of charge. Take advantage, but toss something in the donations basket to ensure that we're treated like this again next August.

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)

Two Gentlemen Of Verona

Through Aug. 20Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, 2111 Sansom St., 215-496-8001,www.phillyshakespeare.org

Recent Comments
Web Exclusives
RJ Ernst
27, Newtown
Sergeant, Marine Corps
Deployed to Iraq Spring 2005, in Iraq currently
Tim Johnson
50, Port Richmond
Specialist, Army National Guard
Deployed to Iraq Winter 2004 and Spring 2008
Lilliam Bernal
27, Trenton
Second Lieutenant, Army National Guard
Deployed to Iraq Winter 2005
Japandroids
Tue., July 7, 8 p.m., $10, with Matt & Kim and Team Robespierre, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, r5productions.com.
Search Restaurants


search restaurants by name
search by neighborhood
Search
search by cuisine
Search Movies
title
theater

Search
Search Jobs
search for:
within:   of  
more jobs
(use zip or city, state)
Search
"Great vision without great people is irrelevant."
—Jim Collins, Author,
"Good to Great"
In Partnership with JobCircle
Search Events
Search For:
Category:
Search
Search DJ Nights
keyword:
category
locations
Search
Search Classifieds
Category:
Keywords: Search

Search Real Estate
Search Happy Hours

ALL | MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN

or

LOCATION:

ADVERTISEMENT
- TODAY -
It's hard to know what to get a dead president for his birthday, but surely Abe would approve of Lincoln's ... more »»

CCD Sips

Moveable Feast

Date My Text

DJ Nights

Primer



Dish 2008