An outdoor production cannot play to a full hall, but the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s “Two Gentlemen of Verona” played to a full hill at the Missouri Botanical Garden on press night. The delightful show is the work of TourCo, the festival’s touring arm.
The turnout of about 700 was surely due more to the festival’s reputation than to the play’s. “Two Gents” is an infrequently performed early comedy in which Shakespeare’s characters, plotting, and poetry are less sophisticated than they would become in his maturity. Even so, the festival lives up to its reputation with a splendid staging that is certainly worth a trip to one of the 30 parks TourCo will visit over a period of five weeks.
The title characters are the close friends, Valentine and Proteus. They bid each other farewell when Valentine heads for Milan to broaden his horizons at the court. Proteus intends to remain in Verona because of his love for a woman named Julia. Proteus’ plans go awry when his father compels Proteus to join Valentine in Milan. Proteus and Julia exchange vows and rings at their unhappy parting
In Milan, Valentine falls deeply in love with Silvia, the Duke’s daughter. Proteus, too, falls in love with Sylvia in Milan and betrays both Valentine and Julia.
Director Rebekah Scallet judiciously trimmed the text but incorporated several songs to give the show a running time of 90 minutes. The music is by Jordan Coughtry, who is best known in St. Louis for his excellent performances in “Dial ‘M’ for Murder” and “The Cottage” at The Rep.
Two of the charming songs are based on well-known Shakespearean sonnets. Another song happily puts Julia on an equal footing with Sylvia by asking “Who is Julia” as well as “Who is Syliva.” Best of all, the song in the reconciliation scene makes it much more moving than it is in the text. The music director is Larry D. Pry.
The excellent cast is locally trained as well as locally based. One actor is a WashU graduate. The other five are alumni or students at Webster University’s Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts. They convey an exemplary understanding of the characters, the context, the verse, and the humor.
The performers (in alphabetical order) include:
- Jada Simone Francis as Silvia, Lucetta, and an outlaw
- Jayson Heil as Launce, the duke, and an outlaw
- Otto Klemp as Valentine
- Bryce A. Miller as Speed, Thurio, and Eglamour
- Tristan Wallach as Proteus and an outlaw
- Sarah Wilkinson as Julia and an outlaw.
Wilkinson distinguishes effectively between Julia and Sebastian, the boy Julia pretends to be when she follows Proteus to Milan. Michele Siler’s costumes help differentiate between servants and masters and between characters played by the same performer.
John Wilson is the fight and intimacy coordinator. Katherine Stepanek designed the attractive, portable set. I was too far up the hill to see much of the set’s detail, but I had no trouble hearing thanks to audio engineer Bee Muzzy.
Click here for the full TourCo schedule.
—Gerry Kowarsky
Photo © Phillip Hamer Photography
From the left, Otto Klemp as Valentine and Tristan Wallach as Proteus in “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.”
