Bard on the Beach, Vancouver
Malcolm Page in British Columbia
9 September 2024
At Vancouver’s annual Bard on the Beach, the smaller tent usually houses the less popular plays, this year The Comedy of Errors (but how popular is it?) and Measure for Measure.
Scott Bellis as Egeon (foreground).
Photo credit: Tim Matheson.
In The Comedy of Errors, did Shakespeare intend comment on husbands and wives, getting and spending, and even on facing execution in a matter of hours? Should a production direct our attention to these heavy-duty topics? Rebecca Northan, the director, is clear. She seeks “warm laughter” which will unite an audience. She knows her script is not only short but quite thin.
We begin watching two women with pots on their heads walking aimlessly about, then a cryptic ritual for nine people in head-to-toe cream robes, handing flowers to a percussion accompanist. Ephesus is established as a strange and unfamiliar place. We are 10 minutes into the play before a word is spoken. Ryan Cormack’s set is huge, towering to the roof, alleys and archways “calling to be explored”. Drab and dark, somewhere clearly not England or Canada, working class Ephesus. The bright colours of Christine Reimer’s costumes shine all the brighter.
Then Egeon explains his plight. He is played by Scott Bellis, in his 51st role in the Bard company over nearly 40 years. He also plays the goldsmith, indicating that he is another character by comic business with a hat. And so to the two pairs of identical twins. Though written for four actors, here perhaps the easy way out of one actor for both roles. Tal Shulman as Dromio is short and dark, the kind of performer you know will be amusing from the moment you set eyes on him. I was less sure about the Antipholus of Jeremy Lewis, tall, thin, well-spoken, but somehow lacking in a sense of fun.
All is loud and fast – we are happily entertained for two hours.
~~~
Christopher Gaze, creator of Bard and its Artistic Director, said of the fourth play, Measure for Measure, “We are certain audiences are going to love this new retelling of this Shakespeare classic.” The majority of the audience may well have loved – or at least enjoyed – this version but count me out.
The director, Jivesh Parasram, decided to take the core idea of the 1984 film, Footloose, set in a society in which dancing is prohibited and make this, not sexual morality, the issue in his adaptation. A few minutes of thought should have should have shown him that this would not work, a jokey topic imposed on a very serious one. The new subject makes possible music and dancing, some semi-underground music culture. However, Shakespeare is writing earnestly of Isabella’s religion and Claudio’s imminent death. Other plays, of course, have mixed moods (Twelfth Night for one), but the dance party at the centre means serious moments stick out awkwardly.
Measure for Measure.
Photo credit: Tim Matheson.
I question altering a Shakespeare text as much as this for any audience. The added lines do not attempt to sound Jacobean so we have: “I owe you an apology.” Rewrite The Two Gentlemen of Verona if you must, but not a drama as good as Measure for Measure.
Craig Erickson as Angelo and Meaghan Chenosky as Isabella try to make us care in the rare serious bits, but they have been placed in an incoherent muddle where nothing matters. Scott Bellis as the Duke appears in and out of both levels, right enough for this part. There are only five more actors to cover the remaining parts, so Claudio doubles with Pompey, and Isabella has also to play Mistress Overdone.
Ryan Cormack (set designer) records that the location is not Vienna about 1604 but a “roughly present day Eastern Europe” with “inspiration from the red-light district in Amsterdam, German club culture”. Colour comes from neon signs.
Alaia Hamer, the costume designer, also supplies lots of colour. Claudio, for example, wears a green hat, a red jacket and orange trousers. She asserts, puzzlingly, that conservative characters are “the most outrageous and joyful versions of themselves”. Connecting with disco, perhaps.
Parasram has spoiled Measure for Measure and put nothing of value in its place. Obviously, though, I am not the target audience.
Measure for Measure runs until 20 September and The Comedy of Errors to 21 September.
