✭✭✭✩✩<b>
</b><b>by Carlo Goldoni, directed by László Marton
Soulpepper Theatre Company, Harbourfront Centre Theatre</b><b>, Toronto
</b><b>August 26-September 25, 2004</b>
We have to thank Soulpepper for bringing us <i>Mirandolina</i>, one of the finest plays by Italy’s greatest comic playwright, Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), whose works are so unaccountably neglected in North America. Director László Marton shows us what a delightful work it is and has filled it with numerous amusing moments, but the various elements of the production don’t come together as they should.
The play is a kind of reversal of <i>The Taming of the Shrew,</i> where the man-hater Kate is replaced with a woman-hater Cavaliere (Stuart Hughes). He alone among the guests at a country inn does not vie for the affections of the proprietress Mirandolina (Kristen Thomson), thus setting in motion her plan to humble him by seducing him.
The production cries out for a better translation than the uncredited one that veers between stilted and colloquial. Astrid Jansen’s skewed set, literally coming apart at the seams, suggests an emphasis on the action as theatre that Marton doesn’t seem to share. Marton’s odd pacing lingers on scenes tangential to the main plot but rushes through the key scenes that might give greater insight into the two main characters and lend more poignancy to the conclusion. Thomson herself does not fully capture the risk in Mirandolina’s skillful duplicitousness or the sense she may be getting caught in her own trap.
While Hughes deliciously charts the Cavaliere’s tortuous descent from misogyny to love, the hilarious Diego Matamoros steals the show as the poverty-stricken Marchese vainly attempting to attract Mirandolina with an empty title while his penny-pinching habits undermine his every step.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in <i>Eye Weekly</i> 2004-09-09.
Photo: Poster for <i>Mirandolina</i>. ©2004 Brian Rea.
<b>2004-09-09</b>
<b>Mirandolina</b>