ARTS REVIEW: WICKED WILDE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

'MacBeth' and 'The Importance of Being Earnest'...With a Twist

By: Clare Elfman

June 15, 2010

Remember the witty film Shakespeare in Love? The plot-line of that film was a woman trying to play Juliet at a time when only men played women onstage.   Now, in a bit of tricky gender-bending, Lisa Wolpe with her L.A. Women’s Shakespeare Company is not only casting women to play male roles but, in a most interesting twist, having Lady Macbeth played in wildly wonderful wig and gown, open enough to show a well-muscled guy so that the turnaround is not only gender-shifting but having the steely-hearted Lady played soft and campy by a very masculine actor.

From this season’s run at the Miles Memorial Playhouse in Santa Monica, the two plays I saw were Oscar Wilde’s most wicked and delightful comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest, and the edited Macbeth played by three men and the campy Lady.

I love Earnest. It’s been done in film twice — one major adaptation in the ’40s, and a more recent and less successful version a few years ago. If you’ve never seen the play, it’s an outrageous and very broad satire on Wilde’s contemporary society. Two men lie about their names so they can leave their lives and responsibilities for a bit of high life away from home. The two beautiful young women they are courting decide that they will only marry men named Earnest. Since one is Jack and the other Algernon, that presents a problem. The rich aunt of the one will not permit the marriage, since the man in question has no family connections; in fact, he was adopted when he was found in a small “handbag” left in Victoria Station, the Brighton Line. Miss Prism, the tutor of one of the girls who was, in fact, the nursemaid who was walking the child while, in this “handbag,” was her three-volume romance novel. In a moment if distraction, she put the manuscript in the carriage and the baby in the handbag, which she left…you understand the nature of the piece.  Great Oscar Wilde humor.

In this version, both Jack and Algernon are played by women, but Lady Bracknell, the outrageous mother, is delightfully played by a man — not only a man but a very large man, J0hn Achorn, who  makes a hugely amusing society mother.  Lisa Wolpe herself plays Jack. It’s an odd experience but a pleasant one. The audience was most receptive. Odd because not only are you enjoying Wilde’s…it may be too much to say “immortal” lines as you might with Shakespeare…but the lines are brilliant. And more odd yet since the playwright himself was shortly to be suffering from a legal gender tragedy two years at hard labor for the accusation of homosexuality, and in life, the plot was more fantastical than his own inventions. His lover’s father made the accusation. Wilde was married with two beloved children. The trial was bound to cause embarrassment to his family. But his lover detested his father, coerced Wilde into suing for libel (when his “secret” was known to many). Wilde  himself was put on trial, his wife and children fled the scandal; he was sentenced to two years hard labor.  His wonderful comedies were banned from the stage.

The gender-twisted Earnest was well-received; the audience loved it. I myself wondered what was the point of the gender-shifting, beyond novelty. Jack is a head shorter than then girl he’s courting; both Miss Prism and her beloved Dr. Chausable were right-gender cast. Only the two courting lovers were played by women.  The novelty was amusing. So I would assume it’s just the fun of it rather than an attempt to ask the audience to consider gender differences in our times — so much different from Wilde’s.

Macbeth was fascinating and provocative. Four men played the roles.  In this adaptation, the devil has temped Macbeth in his search for power to commit murder. The major and most interesting twist was the soft Lady Macbeth, played by Kevin Vavasseur who also plays many other roles. The tone of the play is darkly colored by violence.  Shakespeare’s lines were dramatically intoned (but with not quite enough modulation to make the characters believable, although those three strong actors were the personification of power and violence).   The fight scene was great, but if the rest of the play follows Shakespeare’s dramatic intention, what was the purpose of a campy Lady Macbeth? Although she was, to me at least, the most riveting character in the piece.

Where Lady Macbeth is usually the steely women who urges her hesitant husband to “…screw his courage to the sticking place,” this campy lady is soft in tone, clinging and almost female in the Victorian sense. I was totally fascinated by the shift in meaning with the shift in gender, and totally taken with the blond, ultra-curled wig and the very muscular physique.

Gender-bending experiment playing at the Santa Monica Miles Memorial Playhouse through June 27th. Tickets call (800) 838-3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com