Tuesday, February 16, 1999
Curtain Calls
"The Merry Wives of Windsor"
Through Feb. 21
The MET Theater
Hollywood
Tickets: $10-$20
(323) 957-1152
Updating Shakespeare has encountered something of an explosion
in recent years. Though not at all a new innovation (in the 1930s
Orson Welles staged a production of "Macbeth" set entirely in Haiti
and infused with voodoo ritual), the concept has experienced some
growth in recent years.
The MET Theater’s new production of "The Merry Wives of
Windsor," set in and around modern-day Los Angeles, takes the
concept of updating Shakespeare’s comedy to extremes. Nearly every
line of dialogue has been spiced up with some pop culture
reference, from "Baywatch" to "Beverly Hills 90210" to Leonardo
DiCaprio. Though the script doesn’t use this concept to the fullest
potential, "Merry Wives" is an adequately entertaining piece of
theatrical fluff.
Shakespeare’s tale has been relocated from Windsor, England, to
Windsor Court, Bel-Air, where the Page and Ford families live side
by side. The Pages’ young daughter, Anne, not only beautiful, but
carrying with her a good deal of wealth, is wooed by the wealthy
Abraham Slender, the plastic surgeon Dr. Caius and millionaire
playboy Kirby Fenton. Add into all of this confusion the adulterous
attempts of fading television producer Sir John Falstaff, and the
result is romantic intrigue of, well, Shakespearean
proportions.
The performances generally work well, considering the difficulty
of pulling off such silly material. The actors do an amiable job
grounding some of the more wacky movements of the story in reality
(although not even Sir Lawrence Olivier could have saved the
"Thriller" parody), but special note must be given to Joel Brooks,
whose interpretation of Mr. Ford provides a center of stability for
the entire production.
The real trouble here is the script, which isn’t nearly clever
enough to live up to the potential of the concept. Updating
Shakespeare to a modern Los Angeles setting allows for much brevity
and wit, but all the additions to the bard’s own work here are
obvious, and most of them are not very funny.
Some small references to Linda Tripp or Tito Jackson are good
for a sporadic easy laugh, but "Merry Wives of Windsor" attempts to
make these little Tarantino-isms into a two-hour production, and
the material simply can’t sustain interest for that long.
Pleasant though it may be, "Merry Wives" will not go down as a
truly worthwhile update of the greatest dramatist’s works.
Lonnie Harris
Rating: 5
"Burning Desires"
Through March 14
The Gascon Center Theatre
Culver City
Tickets: $15
(323) 660-8587
Although Joan d’Arc is best remembered for being burned at the
stake as a witch, that hardly says anything about what she was all
about.
Joan d’Arc, a 15th century woman living under patriarchal rule,
was all about breaking from the social norm. She not only became a
leader of men, she also had a penchant for hearing voices in her
head – a mental condition today, but a sign of heresy back
then.
It seems fitting that Joan Schenkar’s play, "Burning Desires,"
would reincarnate Joan d’Arc into a teen living in the conservative
’50s.
Again, the military heroine must fight her way through social
conformity, while obeying the voices in her head.
The play takes liberties with history but to an often inventive
effect. Joan Dark, played by Anne Flanagan, is the only daughter of
a respected doctor. Joan’s brothers, hilariously both named John,
are prepubescent nitwits who take after their father. Her mother is
a repressed housewife.
Already from the makeup of Joan’s family, a clear theme comes
through:
Men are bad, women are good.
"Burning Desires" is a feminist vehicle, not to say that men
won’t like it, but there’s enough
"men-are-testosterone-filled-pussballs" rhetoric to challenge a
man’s sense of humor. For instance, her two brothers talk giggly
about things such as rape and incest.
This is only the tip of the iceberg.
After the voice of the goddess Diana leaves her, Joan is given
several saints to look over her – all women, including Gertrude
Stein (Lisa Gould), novelist Emily Bronte (Renee Fontaine) and
Native American Princess Angeline (Nicole Angileri). These
characters are the voices in Joan’s head who direct her through her
life.
Essentially, their duty is to protect Joan’s chastity from
sexually avaricious males, such as her brothers.
Not fit to be a Girl Scout, Joan joins a group of female
pyromaniacs called the Bonfires. The irony, of course, is that the
real Joan probably had some distaste for fire, seeing as how she
was burned at the stake. This idea is played with again in the
setting, Seattle, where it is very wet and rainy.
Things get complicated when Joan’s father reveals himself to be
a mad scientist with an obsession of mutilating his daughter. The
male medical community agrees to mutilate Joan superficially in the
interest of science, but really it’s to satiate their sick male
desires.
The play is fast and furious, never boring viewers and always
keeping them on their toes. The dialogue is colorful and
sophisticated, although some of the jokes tend to be flat.
Most alluring about the play are the saints, specifically the
delightfully saucy Marlene Dietrich (Brigitta Simone). They each
embody feminism a different way and their interactions are among
the funniest in the play.
Joan Dark is the main character of the play, but the play is not
really about her. She is merely the vehicle through which a battle
of sexes occurs. Feminism clearly permeates the play in many ways.
In fact, one could even argue that this play pokes fun at feminism
and has a funky time doing it. But a healthy sense of
self-deprecating humor on the men’s part is a definite
prerequisite.
Howard Ho
Rating: 7
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