Review: Loose Canon's "The Merchant Of Venice"
Sunday, August 27, 2006
One reason "we'll always have Shakespeare" is not just the durability of the greatest poetry in the English language but the opportunity Shakespeare offers talented directors to fuse a modern sensibility with -- the greatest poetry in the English language.
In a bold fusion this weekend at UW Parkside, Brian Rott, directing the first production for a small group he founded this summer called Loose Canon Theatre, puts the fashions, postures and iconography of 1980's America to work in a seven actor version of The Merchant Of Venice.
Still in his early twenties, Rott couldn't have known the full extent of his cleverness, couldn't have known what invoking the era of junk bonds, Princess Diana and Ronald Reagan would do for his 40-something audience. He couldn't have fully anticipated the toe tapping at the first notes of Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics, or the memories kindled by something like hair gel, shoulder pads for women, and a marvelously employed Rubiks Cube.
But his instincts were superb. In this "Merchant" Rott combined two smaller male roles into one fatal female. His concept was more than validated by Milwaukee actor Angela Beyer, playing some dangerous candy and leaving lipstick and a trace of cocaine on Shakespeare's verses.
This Beyer sister (there are two in the cast) also accounts for some of the play's subtlest comedy (Rott making it clear he considers Merchant of comedic origin) when she returns as Shylock's daughter.
I often think Angela Beyer has the soul of a comedienne. Here, as Jessica, she's amusingly off center. In an ill-fitting man's hat and overcoat, showering hopes and money on her suitor from a balcony, she winks at Shakespeare's Juliet but her closest relative may very well be one of the comedian Red Skelton's lovable kooks.
UW Parkside student Derek Ewing's slick, posturing Bassanio, all jacket and jawline, seems like he's one cigarette burn on his shiny suit from having the surface punctured. An 80's mindset.
As for Shylock, the question of sympathy is complicated. Milwaukee actor E. Frank Namath remains engaging throughout, and that's surely a victory.
Milwaukee actors Kyle Tikovitsch and Tina Schultz deliver comedically in multiple roles and also demonstrate this group believes rightly there's a worthwhile moment in every line.
If you know Shakespeare a little you anticipate the big speeches. Milwaukee actor Jacquie Beyer's "Quality of mercy..." was muscular in her male disguise, and worth waiting for.
Portia is one of the "pants roles" and Beyer made it clear early on, before she put on pants, that a swimming suit, Lolita sunglasses and a one-of-a-kind hairdo can be pants as much as pants are pants. Her tabloid-style repose on a chaise lounge was perfect for shooting the clay pigeons that are her unwanted suitors, and perfect too for signifying that her wit concerning the male of the species is also, to some degree, "a cover story".
The heartstopper Sunday was her capacity for sentiment. From behind the sunglasses she's first snide about, then emotionally snared in, one of the play's principal conceits: her romantic fate being attached to a shell game -- the chests of gold, silver and lead. Jacquie Beyer raised the stakes high before the game was decided in her favor, so when she walked a few steps to embrace her new husband-to-be, the entire audience walked with her. A kiss is still a kiss.
Loose Canon Theatre is a young, educated group, clearly empowered with both textual analysis and visual splash, and their leader is Brian Rott. One hopes on his return from study at the Moscow Art Theater he'll gather them again, and that these talented performers will help constitute the next generation for Milwaukee theater.
You can see this terrific "Merchant" in Milwaukee at the Astor Theater on Brady Street the weekends of September 1st and September 8.
In a bold fusion this weekend at UW Parkside, Brian Rott, directing the first production for a small group he founded this summer called Loose Canon Theatre, puts the fashions, postures and iconography of 1980's America to work in a seven actor version of The Merchant Of Venice.Still in his early twenties, Rott couldn't have known the full extent of his cleverness, couldn't have known what invoking the era of junk bonds, Princess Diana and Ronald Reagan would do for his 40-something audience. He couldn't have fully anticipated the toe tapping at the first notes of Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics, or the memories kindled by something like hair gel, shoulder pads for women, and a marvelously employed Rubiks Cube.
But his instincts were superb. In this "Merchant" Rott combined two smaller male roles into one fatal female. His concept was more than validated by Milwaukee actor Angela Beyer, playing some dangerous candy and leaving lipstick and a trace of cocaine on Shakespeare's verses.This Beyer sister (there are two in the cast) also accounts for some of the play's subtlest comedy (Rott making it clear he considers Merchant of comedic origin) when she returns as Shylock's daughter.
I often think Angela Beyer has the soul of a comedienne. Here, as Jessica, she's amusingly off center. In an ill-fitting man's hat and overcoat, showering hopes and money on her suitor from a balcony, she winks at Shakespeare's Juliet but her closest relative may very well be one of the comedian Red Skelton's lovable kooks.
UW Parkside student Derek Ewing's slick, posturing Bassanio, all jacket and jawline, seems like he's one cigarette burn on his shiny suit from having the surface punctured. An 80's mindset.
As for Shylock, the question of sympathy is complicated. Milwaukee actor E. Frank Namath remains engaging throughout, and that's surely a victory.Milwaukee actors Kyle Tikovitsch and Tina Schultz deliver comedically in multiple roles and also demonstrate this group believes rightly there's a worthwhile moment in every line.
If you know Shakespeare a little you anticipate the big speeches. Milwaukee actor Jacquie Beyer's "Quality of mercy..." was muscular in her male disguise, and worth waiting for.
Portia is one of the "pants roles" and Beyer made it clear early on, before she put on pants, that a swimming suit, Lolita sunglasses and a one-of-a-kind hairdo can be pants as much as pants are pants. Her tabloid-style repose on a chaise lounge was perfect for shooting the clay pigeons that are her unwanted suitors, and perfect too for signifying that her wit concerning the male of the species is also, to some degree, "a cover story".
The heartstopper Sunday was her capacity for sentiment. From behind the sunglasses she's first snide about, then emotionally snared in, one of the play's principal conceits: her romantic fate being attached to a shell game -- the chests of gold, silver and lead. Jacquie Beyer raised the stakes high before the game was decided in her favor, so when she walked a few steps to embrace her new husband-to-be, the entire audience walked with her. A kiss is still a kiss.Loose Canon Theatre is a young, educated group, clearly empowered with both textual analysis and visual splash, and their leader is Brian Rott. One hopes on his return from study at the Moscow Art Theater he'll gather them again, and that these talented performers will help constitute the next generation for Milwaukee theater.
You can see this terrific "Merchant" in Milwaukee at the Astor Theater on Brady Street the weekends of September 1st and September 8.
