LA STAGE WATCH is a series of articles by staff writer/blogger Don Shirley.
Someone should introduce Equivocation and Richard III to each other - or more specifically, to each other’s audiences.
You’re probably familiar with Richard III. Bill Cain, who wrote Equivocation - now at the Geffen Playhouse - certainly is.
In Equivocation’s depiction of Robert Cecil (Connor Trinneer), the prime minister for King James in 1605-1606, Cain created a villain who has “a permanently bent body and short stature,” according to the stage directions. It sounds just like Shakespeare’s Richard, and Cecil wields power as treacherously as did you-know-who.
Connor Trinneer as Cecil, Joe Spano as Shakespeare
Shakespeare himself (Joe Spano) is the central character. Cecil asks the playwright to write the official dramatization of the recent defeat of an alleged Catholic conspiracy to blow up Parliament and the king. The request is really a command, and it hurls Shakespeare into an ethical crisis.
Deep into the play’s second act, in a conversation between Cecil and Shakespeare, Cecil suddenly plays the vulnerability card, indulging in his own pity party, just before he recklessly tries on the king’s crown. Shakespeare feels a brief trace of sympathy for his antagonist. Only later does Shakespeare realize that Cecil’s poor-me lines were almost verbatim quotes from Shakespeare’s then-13-year-old play Richard III.
“I fucking wrote it!,” exclaims Shakespeare (Cain’s characters use contemporary American idioms, except when they’re acting). Cain also gives a few lines in Equivocation to characters - Catesby, Buckingham - who share names with Richard III characters.
Wouldn’t theatergoers who like Equivocation also be interested in seeing a good production of Richard III - and vice versa? Well, A Noise Within happens to be doing Richard III as part of its fall repertory - and doing it very well. The two productions even share one overlapping participant - Bo Foxworth plays Clarence and Tyrell in Richard III and choreographed the fights for Equivocation.
Susan Angelo and Steve Weingartner in Richard III
Yet A Noise Within is in Glendale. That might as well be Cucamonga for many of the Geffen-going Westsiders. (And would you believe that A Noise Within plans to move even farther east - to east Pasadena?). Meanwhile, a lot of A Noise Within’s Eastside supporters surely shun the dreaded Westside traffic jams.
OK, theatergoers often need a little prompting to travel beyond their usual boundaries. Although it’s a little late, here are a few ideas:
Advertise each show in the other’s program. Sell discount ticket packages if you buy single tickets to both Equivocation and Richard III. Offer each theater’s subscribers discounted tickets to the other theater’s show. Stage post-show talk-backs involving personnel from both productions, at both theaters.
Of course for any such cooperative ventures to sprout, someone has to notice - early in the planning stages of each production - that another planned production in greater L.A. might contain the seed. Yes, I’m continuing the theme I discussed in my last post, about building more pan-regional awareness and support for L.A.’s theater artists.
I saw Equivocation and Richard III within 24 hours of each other. I recommend this self-created mini-festival to anyone who could arrange it.
It’s true, as its first L.A. critics have noted, Equivocation needs a trim of its central intrigues and perhaps more details about the subplot of Shakespeare’s relationships with his children. Still, the play is an undeniably rousing adventure for serious theatergoers. Precisely because so much is going on inside it, it might well attract repeat audiences.
As for Richard III, I never understood from previous productions why it’s staged so often - even after I saw Ian McKellen in it (perhaps my reaction to him was colored by the venue, UCLA’s Royce Hall, which is too big for most plays). I usually grow tired of Richard’s blatant villainy long before the play ends.
But Geoff Elliott’s staging at A Noise Within kept me intrigued throughout - in part because of the intimacy of the venue, but also because Steve Weingartner’s performance as Richard maintains a propulsive muscularity, despite the character’s physical limitations. So does Patrick Hotchkiss’ sound design.
This Richard III also features a vital turn by Susan Angelo, who’s better known for her many roles at Topanga’s summer-only Theatricum Botanicum. I’ve noticed over the last several summers that familiar A Noise Within faces increasingly appear in Theatricum shows, too.
This kind of cross-fertilization should take place with audiences as well as with actors.
Equivocation continues at Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. Tues.-Fri., 8 pm. Sat., 3 and 8 p.m. Sun., 2 and 7 p.m. Closes Dec. 20. www.GeffenPlayhouse.com. 310-208-5454.
Richard III continues at A Noise Within, Sun. Nov. 29, 2 and 7 p.m.; Dec. 2-4, 8 p.m.; Dec. 12, 2 and 8 p.m. www.ANoiseWithin.org. 818-240-0910.
Two other plays that might share audiences with each other — although they’re geographically even farther apart - are CalRep’s production of Current Nobody at the Queen Mary in Long Beach and The Trojan Women at City Garage in Santa Monica.
Each examines the aftermath of the Trojan War, updated to the 21st century.
In Melissa James Denton’s Current Nobody, a modern, American Od (as in Odysseus) stays home with his daughter Tel (as in Telemachus) while his wife, combat photographer Pen (as in Penelope), gets lost on the way home from shooting the war.
In Pen’s absence, a TV crew moves in with Od and Tel to document Pen’s possible homecoming and stays, making sexual moves on Od - as Penelope’s suitors did in the original. Here, the wooing is more arbitrary and fanciful. The odd title is derived from Homer’s original story of how Odysseus called himself “Nobody” to escape the Cyclops.
John Langs demonstrates considerable finesse in staging this beguiling parable about how a long absence can make hearts grow farther apart, not necessarily fonder. By the way, three years ago Langs staged Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice for Circle X - another play that focused on a daughter-father relationship, also derived from Greek myth. We can probably expect him to direct an Electra adaptation any day now.
This is CalRep’s second show in the Royal Theater aboard the Queen Mary. This intimate venue aboard an aged, huge ship is thematically appropriate for an intimate story set against an ancient, epic backdrop - with the added fillip that Pen’s journey involves a lot of seafaring.
Meanwhile, to the northwest, Charles Duncombe adapted the lament of the women who were enslaved after Troy’s defeat. Here the play begins with the titular women embodied as beleaguered women in Darfur. Naturally, a video crew appears here, too, asking awkward questions of the victims. Later, Helen of Troy is a teen singing sensation, with nude dancing boys behind her. Despite some vivid performances under Frederique Michel’s direction, this theatrical panorama could use a sharper focus.
Current Nobody continues at the Queen Mary, Long Beach. Tues.-Fri., 8 p.m. Sat., 2 and 8 p.m. Dark Thanksgiving weekend. Closes Dec. 12. www.calrep.org. 562-985-5526.
The Trojan Women continues at City Garage, 1340 ½ 4th St. (alley between 3rd and 4th), Santa Monica. Fri.-Sat., 8 pm. Sun., 5:30 pm. Dark Dec. 14-Jan. 8. Closes Feb. 21. www.citygarage.org. 310-319-9939.
Equivocation photo by Michael Lamont.
Richard III photo by Craig Schwartz.
