Reviews 2008
Reviews 2008
✭✭✩✩✩
written by David Copelin, directed by Sue Miner
Burning Passions/Some Strange Reason Theatreworks, Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs
May 16-June 7, 2008
"Poisoned Passion"
In 2005 David Copelin’s “Bella Donna” won the Toronto Fringe Festival’s Best Play Award and became a Fringe Patron’s Pick. A longer version of the play recently had a successful run in St. John's last year. Judging the play from its current production now playing at the Berkeley Street Theatre, it’s hard to see how it could have garnered lukewarm let alone rave reviews in either of its previous incarnations. It is billed as a “sexy new comedy”, but the writing is inept and, except for the punning title, relentlessly unwitty while the sex scenes are awkward and not remotely titillating.
The subject is Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519), a woman whose enemies depicted her as the ultimate femme fatale of the Renaissance. Her brother Rodrigo became Pope Alexander VI and arranged three marriages for Lucrezia to consolidate his power. The first was to Giovanni Sforza, who accused Lucrezia if both paternal and fraternal incest, though the marriage was annulled because it was not consummated. The second was to Alfonso of Aragon, whom Lucrezia’s brother Cesare later murdered. The third was to Alfonso d’Este, Prince of Ferrara (1476-1534). Though neither was faithful, she bore him eight children, dying in childbirth with the last. She famously rumoured to have a hollow ring containing poison to use against her enemies.
Copelin’s story begins when Lucrezia is married to Alfonso d’Este and the brother the pope and died only to be replaced by the anti-Borgia Pope Julius II, who in 1509 promptly excommunicates the Borgias and the entire populace of Alfonso’s entire dukedom. Meanwhile a mysterious soldier named Giovanni plots Lucrezia’s assassination only to fall in love with her when both are in disguise.
This might seem to be ripe material for an historical melodrama such as Victor Hugo wrote in 1833. Indeed, her life, at least has her enemies portrayed it, was so extreme it could be a subject for comedy. Copelin, however, presents a confusing exposition to a confusing story, assuming at the start that we know all the rumours about Lucrezia and later filling in background he should have given us earlier. The scenes he depicts (i.e., various characters caught in flagrante by others) could be funny but there is no build-up in dramatic tension and his prose is never clever enough to match the outrageousness of the action.
Compounding the problem is the direction of Sue Miner, who, if there humour in the piece, doesn’t seem to have found it even though she directed the shorter version back in 2005. As a result the cast play their roles in distinctly different acting styles. Stephen Sparks as Alfonso and Mimi Mekler as Lucrezia spy and poison-maker Sister Bibiana, treat the play as a spoof. Sparks speaks Copelin’s lines with conscious bluster and Mekler approaches her part with dry comedy. In contrast, Françoise Balthazar as Lucrezia and Daniel Chapman-Smith approach the play as high tragedy, with Balthazar far more believable in this line than Chapman-Smith. Lindsay McMahon as Angela di Ghilini, Alfonso ward and mistress, wavers between these two approaches but is more successful at comedy especially since she portrays Angela as a kind of Renaissance Valley Girl.
The conflicting approaches to the play mean the show is neither very funny as a comedy nor very engaging as a serious play. The best feature, in fact, is Nina Okens’ very attractive period costumes. Jackie Chau’s simple set of falling swaths of rich fabric would be effective if left alone, but Miner has decided to have these swathes rearranged in various ways to distinguish the many scenes. This constant manipulation takes time and ruins what little momentum, comic or otherwise, that the play possesses. It would have been far better to leave the scene-changing to Dan MacIlmoyl’s varied lighting cues.
The number of successful Fringe shows that have successful remounts is not high. One reason is that Fringe patrons approach a play with low or no expectations and are glad when anything shows ambition and contrast with the run-of-the mill. In its current incarnation, “Bella Donna” simply doesn’t meet the higher expectations the public expects from a professional production.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Françoise Balthazar and Daniel Chapman-Smith.
2008-05-18
Bella Donna