My cultural activities this past weekend had a lovely symmetry to them; I started and ended my weekend with Shakespeare.
Friday night’s date night consisted of going to Actors From The London Stage’s performance of The Tempest. For the record, my hubby, who works downtown near Government Center, was able to take the 5:35 pm commuter rail, and be out at Wellesley by 6:15 pm (plenty of time to get a pre-theatre snack; he recommends the lemon pudding at the Lulu cafe). I saw AFTLS’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dreamat Wellesley a year ago, was blown away, and couldn’t wait to see them again. To be perfectly honest, I was a bit ambivalent about seeing The Tempest, as it’s not my favorite of Shakespeare’s works. I find the character of Miranda rather insipid. However, I think that anything the AFTLS actors touches turns to gold, and I was excited to see what they would do with this play.
The performance was a revelation that made me reevaluate my prejudices against the play in general, and Miranda in particular. The AFTLS troupe consists of five actors who perform all the roles. Characters are distinguished by body language, minimal props, and accents. This seems like it would be confusing, but in fact, clarifies the relationships between the players. For example, the same actress played both the daughter Miranda and the spirit Ariel, a pairing that revealed the subjugated status of both characters! The actors are remarkably talented (it boggles my mind that they put together these productions without a director) and the two and a half hour performance flew by.
On Sunday afternoon, I went with a friend to see Opera Boston’s production of Beatrice et Benedict. Berlioz’s opera, based on Shakespeare’s As You Like It, is a fitting choice for the niche that Opera Boston seems to be carving out for itself as a company that revives underperformed works. It was great to see the Cutler Majestic so full on a Sunday afternoon, and the musicians were just wonderful. Baritones David McFerrin and Robert Honeysucker were divine, and mezzo-soprano Julie Boulienne’s voice was timbrally perfect for the role of Beatrice. I was a bit dubious about setting the opera in 1950’s Sicily, but it worked. The music was a whole lot of lovely (one sonorous piece after the other), and the staging didn’t do a lot to mediate the sameness of the score, but all in all a wonderful production. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing The Midsummer Marriage in February (and I heard a rumor that recent Wellesley alumna Stephanie Kacoyanis will be in the ensemble).
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