By Carlo Goldini
Adapted by Nick Enright and Ron Blair
Directed by John Bell
Bell Shakespeare Company
Playhouse, until June 5.
Apparently, the Bell Shakespeare Company has produced this 18th-century Italian farce to teach us more about the popular theatre tradition of Commedia dell'Arte, a tradition that also inspired Shakespeare's comedies. Its influence was not only one of style. Many plots in plays such as Comedy of Errors or Twelfth Night (the Bell Company's next production) come from the same sources, with disguise, trickery, cross-dressing, lost children, lovers or siblings, old fools and uppity servants creating mayhem until all is happily resolved.
The original slapstick and witty improvisation of Commedia dell'Arte has had a permanent influence on comic performance. As the program points out, this includes pantomime, vaudeville and such characters as Mo Rene and even Graham Kennedy. It all seems a long way from Shakespeare, but this highly wrought and very effective production does emphasise that performance itself can be more important than its content.
Every one of the characters has to play clown, in a variety of manifestations. Darren Gilshenan as Truffaldino, the servant who takes on two masters to advance his career and increase his salary, is superb, giving an unforgettable comic performance so good you can't afford to blink in case you miss something that takes only a second but is completely hilarious. In fact, speed is the most important component of his technique.
From his first lightning appearance, with a leer at the audience and calculated eye contact that immediately establishes that he's performing to two audiences, one on stage, one off, Gilshenan has us in on the joke. It hardly seems to matter that the other characters are two-dimensional stock types, the plot ludicrous, the situations ridiculous and the dialogue little more than a vehicle for more crazy stage business.
Director John Bell has made comic excess rule. The jokes are as thickly layered as the costumes' mix of traditional laces and velvets with line-skate Lycra. The dopey substitute lover Silvio (Justin Smith) is a would-be Elvis, not for any particular reason but that it makes a rather uninteresting role more of a joke. Clarice, (Emily Russell) the disputed fiancee, is a kewpee doll in baby pink.
The servants are much smarter than their masters and mistresses. Smeraldina (Jody Kennedy) makes a perfect partner for Truffaldino, all sassy bounce and infectious grins. The two of them generate more energy than the rest of the characters put together, emphasising that this is a topsy-turvy world where improbability is the rule. This makes the aggressively postmodern look and style of the production entirely appropriate.
The real lovers, Beatrice (Blazey Best) and Florindo (Matthew Moore), manage to pull off a tricky mix that indicates they have no more intelligence than strictly necessary for their pre-ordained roles, with a hint of comic knowingness.
There are some wonderful set comic pieces. Perhaps the most accomplished is Gilshenan's solo creation of a seal for a letter out of a crust of bread, a perfect example of virtuoso comic method practically obliterating the reason for its performance. The best ensemble work is seen in the serving of two meals at the inn, where in traditional slapstick style food flies around the stage in all manner of unlikely guises. But in fact there is hardly a piece of dialogue or action that is not expanded into hilarious comic performance.
This production is as clever as it is accomplished, and a comic feast.