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Performing Arts

Shakespeare galore shaping up in the West

Utah Shakespeare Festival celebrates brothers, sisters, twins

Separated at birth, Shakespeare’s two sets of twins in “The Comedy of Errors” travel a long road before they finally meet face to face. The recognition scene, not to give anything away that hasn’t been known for 420 years, is one of the most gratifying in the world of theater – better than a wedding.

“Comedy” is one of Shakespeare’s very early plays, possibly 1594, and it shows all the mischief and exuberance of youth.

In an imaginative new production, the Utah Shakespeare Festival has transported the action from Asia Minor to the American West. Set in the mid-19th century, the ancient Greek city of Ephesus has become a young San Francisco with a barbershop, brothel, saloon and mercantile. And Director Brad Carroll has left no spittoon unturned as he and his players sieve Elizabethan English into American accents. The transformation works at all levels, and this “Comedy” is the funniest and most coherent I’ve ever seen.

Durango’s own Misha Fristensky appears as one of the twins. A graduate of Durango High School (2006) and the University of Northern Colorado (2013), he joined the USF educational touring company last fall. As Dromio of Ephesus, Fristensky plays opposite veteran USF actor Aaron Galligan-Stierle as Dromio of Syracuse. Their curled mustachios, goofy Western hats, tweed jackets and striped pants make it difficult to distinguish one from the other.

When the twins finally meet at the end of the play, it’s a miraculous moment. With a glance, a few words and tell-tale gestures, the twins realize they are brothers. Their reunion perfectly wraps up one of Shakespeare’s finest comedies.

Fristensky also has two smaller roles in the spellbinding production of “Henry IV, Part I.” He’s John, younger brother of Prince Hal, and Francis, a servant in the tavern.

From an informal trap-door entrance at the beginning to a precise alignment of King and Prince at the end, this production augers well for the next two plays in the cycle. Over subsequent summers, three key actors will continue in “Henry IV, Part II” and “Henry V”: the King (Larry Bull), Prince Henry (Sam Ashdown) and Falstaff (Henry Woronicz). Let’s hope Director Brian Vaughn, who is also co-artistic director at USF with David Ivers, will return.

“Measure for Measure” and “Twelfth Night” round out the Shakespearean offerings. A brother-sister pair figures in both, bringing familial ties forward again. Both have comedic sub-plots, the Pompey story (Anthony Simone) less successfully integrated in “Measure” than Malvolio’s story (David Pichette) in “Night.” Text reduction, not acting, may be the culprit.

Five out of six 2014 productions run about two hours, plus intermission. Are shorter playing times a response to perceived audience preference? One wonders.

The brilliant Sondheim-Lapine “Into the Woods” is this year’s musical offering. Director Jeremy Mann has shaped a beautiful and clear production augmented by set designer Hugh Landwehr’s graphic woodland inspired by the sinister illustrations of Gustave Doré.

Finally, USF presents a world premiere with an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Playwrights J.R. Sullivan and Joseph Hanreddy (also directing) have condensed a complicated novel into a breezy sequence of scenes where characters walk out of one situation into another with the ease of wind blowing through lace curtains.

The set, costumes, lighting and period music merge to create a convincing universe where class, position and inheritance dictate futures if not well-being. Negotiating that maze, Elinor Dashwood (Cassandra Bissell) intelligently anchors the center. At the end, complications sort themselves out suddenly, and the final scene quickly concludes a new play worthy of the masterpiece on which it is based.

jreynolds@durangoherald.com. Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, artist and critic.

If you go

The Utah Shakespeare Festival, in Cedar City, Utah, runs through Aug. 30. Tickets start at $17. For more information, visit www.bard.org.



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