Reviews 2009
Reviews 2009
✭✭✭✭✩
by Plautus, directed by Melee Hutton
Theatreworks Productions’ Stone Circle Project,
Withrow Park, Toronto
July 29-August 9, 2009
The idea of “Shakespeare in the park” has become so commonplace that it is a pleasure to find a theatre company willing to try something different. Since theatre originated in the open air, it is strangely restrictive that Canadian companies should revive only Shakespeare’s plays in that manner, and only a handful of his plays at that. What a treat, then, that Theatreworks Projects’ Stone Circle Project has decided to stage The Menaechmus Twins, a comedy by the Roman playwright Plautus (c. 254-184 BC), whose plays influenced comedy from his day into the present.
In fact, we know The Menaechmus Twins best because it forms the basis for Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. In both plays a set of identical twins are separated in a shipwreck and grow to manhood in different countries. When one arrives in the home town of the other, cases of mistaken identities escalate until the two are reunited. Shakespeare tries to outdo Plautus by giving his twin brothers twin slaves, but it’s fascinating to see how the original story plays out. Most notably Plautus’ comedy is resolved not by an abbess as deus ex machina but by the reasoning of a slave.
Director Melee Hutton has had the clever idea of presenting the play as if it were part of a travelling circus of a century ago. This at once emphasizes the play’s theatricality and allows the actors a broad playing style. Ryan Hollyman and Wayne Ward as the two brothers, Menaechmus of Epidamnus and Menaechmus of Syracuse, look nothing alike, but that is part of the fun. Hutton gives them distinct comic personalities, Hollyman’s character inclined to depression while Ward’s is always on the verge of anger. Jeffrey R. Smith is absolutely hilarious as M. of Epidamnus’ parasite Sponge (“Peniculus” in the original), the most grossly unctuous hanger-on you’ve ever seen. In contrast, the overheated M. of Syracuse is blessed with the slave Messenio (the excellent Adrian Proszowski), the most rational person in the play. Sarah Evans does fine work not only as M. of Epidamnus’ outraged wife and her rival next door, the prostitute Erotium, but also as the Prologue, who clearly sets forth the complex story. Plautus’ plays originally were sung. To compensate Bryce Kulak provides melodramatic underscoring and tuneful music hall-like songs at key moments. The production may be rough-and-ready, but it fills in a crucial gap in our theatrical knowledge and is a whole lot of fun at the same time. Let’s hope for more next summer.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2009-08-05.
Photo: Cast of The Menaechmus Twins.
2009-08-05
The Menaechmus Twins