Review
All's Well That Ends Well
The Duke on 42nd Street
February 21, 2006
Morgan Wycks
mwycks@nyconstage.org
The Theatre For A New Audience's production of Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well is a clean and relatively well read one. But still at its heart the relationship between its Helena and Bertram leaves one wanting an explanation. Of course, Shakespeare's intent as always is to say, in the words spoken by another of his Helenas, "Love looks with the eye and not with the mind".
In a nutshell, the Countess of Rosillion's husband dies and her son, Bertram, leaves to serve the King of France. The Countess finds solace in the care of a physician's daughter, Helena, in whom she confides and perhaps suspects the girl's love for her son. Upon hearing of the King's illness, Helena goes off to cure him. With his health restored, the monarch then allows her to choose any man from his court to marry and …well, after much convolution we get to the play's title.
The wild and woolly Bertram who has many oats to sow before even thinking of marriage, will do anything before settling with Helena. He is brash, intolerant, and pretty much of a cad. So why in the world does wise and wholesome Helena want anything to do with him? Apart from the good looks of Lucas Hall, who plays Bertram, one can only guess that she sees in him the qualities that will arrive once the boy in him has been appeased, qualities that Mr. Hall attempts to bring forward. Kate Forbes, as Helena, is a tense and tight actress, which may overtly reveal the character's insecurities and her need to catch the "golden boy", but it also prevents the logic and at times illogic of her words to ring with authority. One wants to remind her of the play's title and tell her to relax. Perhaps John Christopher Jones could take on that responsibility since he clearly gets it with the character of the serf, Lavatch, reviving the dead art of deadpan. George Morfogen as the King has his moments and brings clarity to the verse but still lacks the motive that sets the play in action. The rather boring role of the Countess seems to understandably bore Laurie Kennedy to the point that she seems a little daft in the second half. The Parolles of Adam Stein is, after Mr. Jones, the most entertaining actor on stage finding the person beneath the bluster and dandyism.
Darko Tresnjak stages this difficult play austerely and precisely though I would have preferred him to sacrifice the breadth of the theatre's stage for more intimate moments so the characters could get their hands a little dirtier. The rest of his cast at times seem amateurish and stiff. David P. Gordon's set is initially stunning though the only ostensible change between the courts of France and the Streets of Florence other than a backdrop is Rui Rita's lighting, while Linda Cho's costumes for the men far outshine those for the women. In any event, all and well, the play ends.
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