Reviewed by James Karas
The
Stratford Festival has hit a home run with its production of The
Changeling. It gets to first base by simply producing this 1622
thriller which has been seen in Stratford only once before, in 1989. It gets to
second base for producing a play for which it almost needs to create an
audience. The Festival deserves to be criticized for ignoring much unfamiliar Renaissance
drama. It gets to home base with a fine cast
under the expert direction of Jackie Maxwell.
The
Changeling was a big
hit in the 1620’s it was popular entertainment and gave Londoners the works:
love, lust, murder, madness, a fail-proof test of virginity, comedy and
tragedy. After a few more productions, the play was ignored for almost 250
years until it was “rediscovered” in the latter part of the twentieth century.
Members of the
company in The Changeling. Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann
Jackie
Maxwell sets the production in Spain in 1938 at the end of the Civil War when
Franco had seized power. As with any placement of an almost 400 year old play
in a modern era there are some things that do not fit but you can easily ignore
them.
The plot
is not as complicated as it looks but a quick read of a summary before going to
the theatre may help. There are two plots, in
fact, a tragic and a comic both dealing with, you guessed it, love, lust,
feigned madness, real lunatics, the changing of the bride and, of course,
homicide.
The
central character is Beatrice-Joanna (Mikaela Davies), the daughter of
Vermandero (David Collins), a local governor and owner of a castle where most
of the action takes place. Vermandero orders Beatrice to marry Alonso (Qasim
Khan) but she loves Alsemero (Cyrus Lane). The ugly and disgusting De Flores
(Ben Carlson) lusts for Beatrice, he lends a hand and takes a finger from Alonso
and he has, to put it politely, his way with
her.
In the
comic plot, Alibius (Michael Spencer-Davis), the priapically challenged owner
of a lunatic asylum, appoints his assistant Lollio (Tim Campbell) to protect
his beautiful wife Isabella (Jessica B. Hill) from intruders to her virtue. Welcome
Antonio (Gareth Potter), who pretends to be a lunatic and gets admitted to the
asylum with that very object in mind. Lollio has the same thing in mind and the
question is who will succeed?
Cyrus Lane as Alsemero and Mikaela Davies as Beatrice-Joanna
in The Changeling.
Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann.
Mikaela
Davies gives us a Beatrice who is sexually magnetic, ruthless, assertive,
cunning and dangerous. Her sleek gown by Costume Designer Judith Bowden doesn’t just reveal, it entices and provokes. Quite a
performance. Her waiting woman Diaphanta (Ijeoma Emesowum) has the same sexual
propensities as her employer which come in handy in fulfilling the title of the
play. Ben Carlson turns in a fine performance as the evil De Flores but there
was little attempt to make him revolting except for a blotch of purple skin on
his face.
Cyrus
Lane’s Alsemero is upright and gentlemanly and he wants us to know that he used
sound judgment and not just hormones in falling in love with Beatrice. Khan as
Alonso is simply besotted by her and he does not want to hear any arguments.
Potter as
Antonio must act the fool and the lover to get to Isabella and he provides some
laughter. Campbell as Lollio, with his impressive bearing and booming voice,
can be a jail guard or a warden in a movie. The gravelly-voiced David Collins
makes a fine Vermandero.
The
theatre-in-the-round stage of the Tom Patterson has four arches with brick and
mortar on the top. They represent the outside of a church, the madhouse and the
castle. A single set by Camellia Koo that does the job. The men wear mostly
three-piece suits with the lunatics and others being more modestly attired.
In short,
Jackie Maxwell and a fine cast deliver an excellent production of a play that has
been ignored for too long.
_____________
The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley
opened on June 15 and will run until September 23, 2017 at the Tom Patterson Theatre,
Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca
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