AMBITIOUS REINTERPRATATION OF RICHARD III AT LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE

Luis Vega and Jesse J. Perez (right) in La Jolla Playhouse’s
world premiere of Seize the King. All photos by Jim Carmody.

Ambition supposedly killed Caesar according to Brutus.  It also, however, became a two-edged sword that cut both way.  Literature is bursting with characters who are infected with the ‘ambition’ virus who sometime beat the odds but usually die in the effort. Themes of love and death are intrinsically linked in literature   Thank goodness for that ambitious personality quirk. It’s one of the core values of storytelling; that the arts illuminates and that life imitates or is it vice versa?

Young award-winning playwright Will Power (he’s 37) has made a bold decision to roll the dice of ‘reinterpretation’ with his brassy new play “Seize the King”, directed by Jaime Castaneda, now on stage of the La Jolla Playhouse's Potiker Theatre. Aspiring young actors have for centuries been admonished: One does not improvise the dialogue of the Bard. But playwrights like Mr. Power believe that they are exempt from such strictures and of course they are.

Youth is passionate, and youth must have its say be they actors or playwrights. Well, so much for theatrical traditions.  The result of their passion and urgency, however, made “Hamilton” possible on Broadway and with audiences everywhere. It introduced hip-hop singing and dancing to musicals as a new art form that reflected the changes occurring in American society.  Diversity and artistic gender-bending casting in the last five years or so is slowly being embraced by audiences everywhere. “The Tempest”, starring Kate Burton as Prospera, at The Old Globe this summer quickly comes to mind. In “Seize the King” for example, King Edward V is played by an Asian-American female.

“Seize the King” is a re-imagined “Richard III” production that is tasked with all of the character roles being performed by just five actors.  That’s a big bite out of a Shakespearean dramatis personae cast list that can be fraught with disconnects to an audience that remembers the classic mounting of Shakespeare’s historical plays performed with traditional staging.  All productions staged in the round, as is “Seize the King”, run the risk of having at least one actor speaking with his or her back to the audience some of the time. It’s a thorny issue for all involved and is rarely resolved to suit everyone.  In director Castaneda’s case, he did his best to minimize any dialogue damage for the audience by his staging.

Luis Vega, Jenapher Zheng, Saidah Arrika Ekulona
and Jesse J. Perez in Seize the King

Playwright Power’s newly envisioned story of Shakespeare’s “Richard III” in short, depicts the Machiavellian rise to power through murder, deceit, treachery, and betrayals by Richard, Duke of Gloucester; subsequently becoming Richard III; the last of the Plantagenet Kings.

Most of the contemporary-influenced dialogue and anachronisms are delivered in standard American-English. However, some dialogue is delivered warts and all, in the vernacular of current American street language, which may be a little off-putting for some.  One of the advantages and pleasures of classic Shakespearean traditional delivery lies in its continuity and fluidity of its structure in iambic pentameter. Once on board with the rhythm of the speeches, audiences were transported to an Arden Forest or to a battle in Agincourt, France, or to a Danish castle without ever leaving their theatre seat.

A talented cast of six protean actors tackle all the roles in this “Seize the King” production that is led by an intense, duplicitous, scheming, Jesse J. Perez, in a full-blown energetic performance as the villainous Richard who must become a King.  As Richard, Mr. Perez, not only breaks the fourth wall convention, he interacts with the audience from time to time, chatting about his actions in the play. It’s bold, but does it work? Perhaps, it’s a method of drawing the audience closer to the emotions of his character. But it’s a finely judged performance none-the-less.

Making all the intrigue, backstabbing, and betrayals work falls to the talents of the following: Luis Vega as Lord Hastings, Young Warwick, and Greygor the Tailor.  He has wonderful stage presence and piercing eye contact that commands our attention in his all scenes.

Saidah Arrika Ekulona, as Queen Woodville, Gardner2, and Master of the Royal Wardrobe, is a formidable Royal Queen, who takes on Richard; making no friendship with him in the bargain.

Julian Parker as Lord Buckingham, Gardner 1, and a Royal servant, scores as a sympathetic Buckingham, who favors Henry Tudor as the future King of England, but never lives to see it happen. Parker has a quiet demeanor, amid all the clamor of war and castle intrigue of “Seize the King”.

Jesse J. Perez and Jenapher Zheng in Seize the King

Jenapher Zheng delivers two real shape-shifting performances: as a convincing young Edward V, Richard’s doomed nephew, and as grieving widow Anne Neville, who is being wooed by Richard, the man who killed her husband and her father. In the Greek or Roman theatre, Richard would be wise to dine away from his intended and avoid drinking wine or the eating of the figs.  Poison was the favored method of resolving troublesome issues back then.

The lives of women then and right up to the 20th century have been ruled by men.  Position and beauty may have been helpful in escaping the executioner’s ax in the Middle Ages, but life was tenuous at best.  Those good old days were not so good for most.  Will Power has been quoted as saying about his role as a playwright creating new paradigms, “Shakespeare wrote for his time.  Today, we write for our time.”  Daring and confident words from a young-turk playwright, who has the chops to back up his challenge.

In the technical department; the creative team led by director Castaneda has Scenic Designer Lauren Helpern reconfigure the Potiker stage from a proscenium format into a theatre-in-the-round acting space.  The Lighting Designs of Tyler Micoleau, provide plenty of light for the costumes of Emilio Sosa to be fully appreciated.  Sound Designer Mikhail Fiksel provides the ear-splitting, propulsive, sound effects that punctuate, scene-changing interludes.  Enough cannot be said, however, about the brilliant riffs and finger technique of drummer Richard Sellers during some of those interludes.  The audience loudly applauded following each of his ’performance moments’; deservedly so.

“Seize the King” at the La Jolla Playhouse, is a world premiere presentation, that is performed without an intermission (95 minutes), and runs through September 16, 2018.

NEIL SIMON COMEDY BAREFOOT IN THE PARK ON STAGE AT SAN DIEGO’S OLD GLOBE THEATRE

Kerry Bishe as Corey and  Chris Lowell as Paul in
"Barefoot in the Park" at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox. 

Whenever the subject of comedy comes up in polite company, it’s almost impossible not to include the name and career of America’s unchallenged King of Comedy playwright Neil Simon.  Simon is one of the world’s most successful and prolific playwrights. His stage play canon is huge, diverse, and wide-ranging when it came to subjects, characters, and stories. But he is best known for his comedy genius when it comes to illuminating the plight we humans find ourselves in during the short time we spend on this planet.

The author of some 60 plays, screenplays, and three novels over the years, Simon, at 91 years of age, still takes pen to paper (probably a yellow-lined legal pad).  But his last play writing effort for the stage was in 2001 with “45 Seconds From Broadway”. True theatre patrons and supporters of the American theatre will forgive the great man’s last effort “Rose’s Dilemma”, which ran just 29 performance in 2003. It wasn’t a bad play, it just didn’t connect with the audience or critics. Some say it was due to the culture and changing times. Perhaps, but how then does one account for the ongoing appeal of Shakespeare and the classic plays of the last century still being produced for the 21st-century American theatrical going public?  As the King of Siam might say “Is a puzzlement.”

Simon’s plays have always been relevant and always will be. More theatre companies merely need to produce his plays which address the problems of how to navigate the choppy waters of getting along with one another. Simon offers the palliative of humor to ease the rough edges of dashed hope and dreams that slip through our fingers. Without humor and comedy life would be unbearable. There’s humor everywhere just hiding in plain sight. Playwright Simon just helps us find it in his plays. But I digress.

San Diego’s renowned Old Globe Theatre is currently staging one of Simons’ earlier, highly successful and blisteringly funny romantic comedy plays “Barefoot in the Park”; seamlessly and smartly directed by Jessica Stone.  The story follows a pair of Newlyweds. Corrie and Paul Bratter, as they begin married life in a tiny, 5-story walk-up Brownstone apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in February of 1963.

Paul (terrifically played by Chris Lowell) is a strait-laced young attorney; Corrie (coquettishly and appealingly played by Kerry Bishe) is far more spontaneous and free-spirited individual who refers to her husband as a stuffed shirt from time to time. As the young couple contend with: a lack of heat, a skylight that leaks snow, several breath-challenging flights of stairs, an oddball Hungarian neighbor Victor Velasco (played with flair and elan by Jere Burns), and Corrie’s well-meaning mother Ethel Banks (nicely played by Mia Dillon) who lives in New Jersey, and an empathetic  NYC telephone installer and repairman portrayed by Jake Millgard (in a little gem of a performance), along with the two newlyweds who must now reconcile their own personal differences in how they approach life’s challenges. Adjusting to married life isn’t so easy. Who knew marriage could be so complicated and yet so funny and entertaining at the same time?

Mia Dillon as Mrs. Ethel Banks and Jere Burns as Victor Velasco
in Barefoot in the Park at The Old Globe. Photos by Jim Cox.

As always with the plays of Simon the situations and the dialogue is scintillating and replete what has now become known as “zingers”; a Simon trademark.   The folly and the pathos on the part of Simon’s characters and their plight is what engages and connects the audience.  Everyone can relate to the character’s antics as well as their own past experiences, say, in giving in to a request to dine at a place one normally wouldn’t.

For example, when Paul, Corrie, Ethel, Corrie’s mother, as the guests of neighbor Victor Velasco, with all four dining at an Albanian restaurant on Staten Island consuming menu items recommended by Victor that are so esoteric that when consumed, they prompt Paul to comment “it’s not easy to dig into a black salad”, or enjoy “a sheep dip soup”, followed by numerous glasses of the Greek liquor Ouzu; which according to the characters in the play make ‘their teeth feel soft’.   No one writes hilarious visual-like dialogue like Neil Simon.

However, no more spoiler alerts from me.  You must see for yourself this fresh, breezy, production to fully appreciate the great comedy writing of Neil Simon and the wondrous technical magic that the Old Globe creative team contributes in the apartment setting, along with five pitch-perfect performances by this outstanding cast.

If I were to be picky about performances in this easy-to-like production, it would come in the form of a question: Why do young, but seasoned performers, think all young female characters – or their directors – feel the need for them to act like prancing, young fillies, to express youth when walking into a room?   One should observe how real young people (18 to 22 years-old) act and move whether they’re living in 1963 or 2018.

The technical credits are always first rate, state of the art, in all the venues of the Old Globe Conrad Prebys theatre complex.  Led by director Stone, Scenic Designer Tobin Ost, renders a functional set with some visual surprises for the audience. Lighting Designer Amanda Zieve provides the proper amount of light to see the Costume designs of David Israel Reynoso, and Sound Designer Lindsay Jones completes the creative team.

Director Stone, however, does indeed, mount a clever, fast-moving, wonderfully-paced comedy, that was originally written for a proscenium theatre, which she neatly transforms to fit into the in-the-round acting space of the Sheryl and Harvey White stage. It’s a splendid production.

I am constantly amazed by Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein’s unerring play selections every season.  He has the pulse of his patrons constantly on his personal radar screen as well as those of current events, and the needs of his actors and creative artists to stretch and grow.  There is a backlog of artists waiting in line to become part of the Old Globe experience. How fortunate for San Diego audiences.

“Barefoot in the Park”, performs in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre and runs through September 2, 2018.