Everyone seems to have enjoyed at least one example of this immensely popular swash-buckler. It would be hard to get an accurate count of all the written, comic book, film, television, and even radio and recorded versions of Alexandre Dumas’ adventurous tale. This rich, affecting stage adaptation by Peter Raby now has had four productions at Stratford since 1968. It’s a sure-fire crowd-pleaser, and the current elaborate production, slickly directed by old pro Miles Potter with a large, sterling cast, is sure to be extended and come close to selling out.
But I don’t remember the earlier versions including so much unpleasant, censorable material such as we now get in all our action movies. John Stead’s exciting fight sequences are somewhat stylized and often fun, but what we are told is at times surprisingly brutal. Evil Milady de Winter, Dumas’s super-villainess, tricks a young Puritan jailer into setting her free with a luridly specific story of how she was brutally stripped and raped my several men at one time; and the eight men who capture and verbally “try” her for her sins enumerate them in ugly, explicit detail. I don’t object to such material, but I was startled to note how many very young children were in the opening performance’s audience, and I wondered whether this version is appropriate for them.
Author Raby and director Potter make sure that we are aware of the accurate historical material and contemporary significances in this fanciful tale. And designers Paraschuk, Gallow, and Walton create a series of imaginative scenes that nonetheless suggest actuality – places and clothes and lighting that these larger-than-life characters might have really inhabited. And the strikingly varied, heroic and evil, and deliciously comic characters are all impressively played by a cast with mostly movie-star glamorous good looks.
Young Luke Humphrey is an adorable D’Artagnan, the spirited hero of the tale, who becomes the fourth Musketeer. His Three Musketeers are played by handsome Stratford leading men as wonderfully eccentric, comically varying, peculiar heroes: Jonathan Goad as Porthos, Mike Shara as Aramis, and Graham Abbey as Athos. Deborah Hay makes Milady de Winter not only beautiful and persuasively seductive, but convincing enough in her constantly varying self-justification that only a nasty outburst or two keeps us from actually sympathizing with the evil critter. Skye Brandon’s Duke of Buckingham is a dashing heroic figure despite actually pursuing an adulterous relationship with Nahassaiu deGannes’ Anne of Austria, Queen of France. His queen/lover is not only brave and lovely but somehow also believable as a virtuous heroine. Frequent master of likable character roles, Keith Dinicol, makes Louis XIII of France almost entirely sympathetic without hiding the King’s mostly weak, clueless nature. And another Canadian chameleon -- sometimes a heroic baritone singer, sometimes a comical figure -- Steven Sutcliffe is here the scary, formidably villainous Cardinal Richelieu.
Despite what I took to be an “R-rated” script, this showy play got the very young kiddies sitting near me to giggle, applaud, and sit smiling and attentive throughout its often-violent, close-to-three hours.
Previews:
May 18, 2013
Opened:
June 1, 2013
Ended:
October 19, 2013
Country:
USA
State:
Canada
City:
Ontario
Company/Producers:
Stratford Shakespeare Festival
Theater Type:
International; Festival
Theater:
Stratford Shakespeare Festival - Festival Theater
Theater Address:
55 Queen Street
Phone:
800-567-1600
Website:
stratfordshakespearefestival.com
Genre:
Drama
Director:
Miles Potter
Review:
Cast:
Graham Abbey, Karl Ang, Wayne Best, Shauna Black, Michael Blake, Skye Brandon, Daniel Briere, Lally Cadeau, Nehassaiu deGannes, Shawn DeSouza-Coelho, Thompson Duff, Victor Ertmanis, Sara Farb, Jonathan Goad, Deborah Hay, Luke Humphrey, Bethany Jillard, Robert King, Andrew Lawrie, Roy Lewis, Tim MacDonald, Ron Pederson, Cal Potter, Gareth Potter, Anand Rajaram, Andrew Robinson, Sabryn Rock, Tyrone Savage, Mike Shara, Steven Sutcliffe, Sophia Walker, Antoine Yared
Technical:
Fight Director: John Stead; Set: Douglas Paraschuk; Costumes: Gillian Gallow; Lighting: Michael Walton; Composer: Leslie Arden; Sound: Peter McBoyle; Movement: Shona Morris
Critic:
Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
July 2013
