If you haven’t been to the Arsenal Arts
Center in Watertown, you’re missing out: Two theater spaces, one downstairs,
one up, two floors of gallery space for art exhibits with studios for quilters,
painters, sculptors etc., a resident children’s theater, the resident New
Repertory company, an arts and crafts shop and an eatery with reasonable prices
just next door. (And I should add, a free parking garage.)
This month two striking productions (one
upstairs on the main stage and one in the black box downstairs) center around
Kings, one British, one Scottish, one with a noble heart and one with base
ambition.
New Repertory’s joyous production of Lerner
and Loewe’s CAMELOT (playing through Dec. 22nd) celebrates the age
of chivalry and pomp, when the King of the Brittons brought law and heroics to
medieval England.
(According to the 9th century writer Nennius, a king named Arthur
defeated the Saxons in the year 500.) The Arthurian legend is made accessible
in CAMELOT by humanizing the mythology in a love story…two love stories, in
fact.
CAMELOT resonates at this particular time,
not just because of the 50th anniversary of the “Kennedy Camelot,”
but because of its overarching message of peace. Arthur despairs that “we have
battles for no reason” other than artificial boundaries, something he learned
when the magician Merlin turned him into a hawk as a boy and he soared over the
vast, open land.
For CAMELOT to soar, you need crackerjack
acting and inspired singing. Director Russell Garrett’s lovely production has
both. Benjamin Evett triumphs as the “ideal” king, keenly aware of his
obligation to everyman since he himself was a commoner before drawing the
famous sword from the stone. You see Evett grow from hopeful bridegroom to heavy-hearted
monarch, graying with the years and the strain of knowing he’s lost his Guenevere
(a resplendent and luminous Erica Spyres) to Lancelot.
Marc Koeck makes a dashing Lancelot, whose
declarations of purity inspire jealousy in his fellow knights. Knockabout,
swaggering performances from Kevin Cirone, Michael J. Borges and Maurice
Emmanuel Parent add delightful humor to the story, as do Robert D. Murphy’s two
(!) star turns, first as the “youthening” Merlin and then as a magnificent,
blustery King Pellinore.
Nick Sulfaro as the sleazy, scheming Mordred
leads the knights away from Arthur in the deliciously naughty “Fie on
Goodness.” Except for Guenevere, CAMELOT is a male dominated vehicle but Shonna
Cirone as Guenevere’s chief lady-in-waiting, Katie Clark as Morgan Le Fey and
all the women who cavort in the “Lusty Month of May” make the distaff presence
count. Every number is full of spirit. Even a treacherous trumpet on opening
night couldn’t dampen my delight.
Downstairs from the musical, a darker world
unfolds in director Joey DeMita’s gloomy, atmospheric MACBETH, presented by
F.U.D.G.E. and playing through Nov. 30th. DeMita’s compelling “weird
sisters” (‘wyrd’ being old Anglo-Saxon for ‘fate’) come equipped with crimson
bands which can ensnare their prey… create a witching triangle… or seem to form
the dagger Macbeth sees before his eyes. These witches choose when to be seen
but they’re present throughout, profaning the “blessed heath,” on or around a
stylized bridge which spans the stage.
DeMita’s clever imagining sets a deep pool of
water (James Petty’s dynamic set) in a wooden island which can become a table
for the banquet scene or a stream for washing away blood or a wading pool for
Banquo’s ghost. DeMita is fortunate to have two strong leads in Dave Rich and
Linda Goetz. Rich has a fiery intensity which reminded me of Al Pacino and
Goetz seemed to embody Lady Macbeth’s wish to be a man. She will do anything to
achieve her goal, including humiliating her husband. Her “give me the daggers”
was truly chilling. I haven’t seen such power in a Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in
years.
