Roger Rees is a charming fellow. Incredibly charming. And we Americans do have a deep love affair for that British accent. As far as I'm concerned, the guy could read the list of ingredients found in a twinkie to me and I would still feel moved and think that something very deep had just been communicated to me, though I'm not quite academic enough to figure it out.
And that's exactly how I felt at the beginning of What You Will: By and About the Bard, Roger's one-man project at the Folger Theatre was like. Following a grand entrance with the Bard's bust under arm, the production was off to a galloping start full of British wit; long, complex sentences; and that whole pentameter thing that makes you think, "Huh?"
Charming, none-the-less. And really, that was sort of Rog's point.
What I found to be the soul of the evening is the idea that Shakespeare, in all his glory, was really just a regular guy. And maybe we should approach his work that way. With reverence, yes, because after several hundreds of years following the guy's death, we're still psycho-analyzing him and his characters. And yet. The great writer adorned his pumpkin pants one leg a time, and liked his regular pint as much as the rest of us.
Rees, who trained with the Royal Shakespeare Company (and holds both Tony and Olivier awards) approaches the text effortlessly. His characters were vivid and likable, and best of all he played himself quite well. There aren't a lot of actors that can do that, you know! But the presentation of the piece as a whole still felt a bit workshoppy. Normally, I wouldn't have a problem with this - I'm actually a huge fan of theatre that's still rough around the edges. But the evening wasn't billed that way, and my ticket cost more than a typical dinner out, and for me - at that price - I expect you to be off book. While the soliloquies and monologues were performed without the aid of a script, two binders were strategically placed on stage to assist in Rees' delivery of the rest of the text, and the blocking was intentionally made to assist the actor in retrieving the binders when he might need them. With all those year's of training, and the scholarly approach of the production, I guess I just expected a bit more. If it was so difficult to commit the text to memory, then perhaps we should cut some text, eh? After all, didn't the Bard once say, "Brevity is the soul of wit"?
And so, I give What You Will: By and About the Bard two-and-a-half out of four stars. It was certainly enjoyable, and I still love Rog, but a nice bottle of wine for my collection would have been better bang for the buck.
To read another review of this piece, visit:
The Washington Post
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
You know, I never knew his name off hand, but I do love Roger Rees!
Sorry it wasn't all that great for you. I don't like seeing theatre when the actors are on book. Musical Theatre Guild does that for every show and it's like, "come on, guys! you are all equity - learn your lines" it really takes away from the magic of theatre.
That's sort of how I felt. I mean the tickets weren't exactly cheap, and no where in the billing did they say "workshop" or "reading", and so I was fully expecting a real one-man show. But there were some parts that were quite redeeming; where you felt like you and Rog were hanging out in a bar letting it fly and he was telling you one hum-dinger of a story. So, when all the kinks are worked out, I'm sure it's going to be a great piece.
Post a Comment