Dachs Thoughts

I had another enjoyable evening of Shakespeare at the Folger Theatre with The Comedy of Errors. It was fun and fast and it started with an unusual device of the purported director of the Worcestershire Mask and Wig Society showing a short film about putting together this play, that was amusing. The last time I saw this play in California, they used large puppets along with the actors; this time in the opening scene of the father describing the back story, he used little finger puppets of all the twins. It was an enjoyable and cleverly staged play and as I’ve come to expect, the acting was excellent.

The enjoyment of the evening was enhanced by the companionship of my friend Kathy. We had dinner at Sonoma, then took a nice walk back home past the Capitol lit up beautifully in the night (a walk made only a little less fun due to the fact that it was raining).

Tonight I experienced another great night of Shakespeare in DC, with STC’s production of Cymbeline at the Lansburgh Theatre. Initially the story summary (falsely sullied virtue of a virtuous wife, etc) didn’t excite me, and I had a little difficulty getting into the play at the beginning. But it eventually really grabbed me. This is a rarely produced play; based on my t-shirt the last time I saw this was in 2001 at CalShakes. They used an interesting device of having a fairy godmother reading the story to a little girl outlining the play’s scenes. The story played a lot of bits for humor, which I’m not sure was always the original intent. The bad guy Cloten was played broadly and very amusingly, at one point riding around on a Vespa, very disjoint from the rest of the period setting. By the end I was really loving the play. I was again struck at how good the acting of this company is.

The set was fairly minimalistic but the did some interesting staging effects. For example, a major battle scene at the end had soldiers rhythmically crawling towards each other while the king poured red liquid into a curved water trough that had been part of the set. This conveyed the sneaking and skulking and dying of the armies very symbolically in an interesting way without the usual choreographed banging of swords. They even had a rainstorm on stage, which again points to STC’s amazing production values (even with a minimalist set). All-in-all another very enjoyable night. This is a play I’d consider seeing again.

Tonight I again took advantage of the rich Shakespeare offerings in DC and saw the rarely performed The Life of King Henry VIII at the Folger Theatre, one of my favorite venues. Hard to believe this was my 10th Shakespeare play in DC since coming to town (not counting the two I’ve seen in CA). With the threat of rain, I walked from work down to capitol hill and had yet another mediocre Chinese meal in DC, after which I walked over to the Folger Theatre. The play was wonderfully acted. One actor in particular, Louis Butelli, who constantly morphed between many roles was awesome. The staging, while sparse, gave a true feel of that historical era. The lighting, with a perpetual light fog, added to the atmospherics, and the costumes were great. Despite all that, the play didn’t blow me away. That is more due to the play itself than this production. The play seemed to have no single drama, and rather painted a broad brush over several of the dramatic events in Henry’s career. I’m glad I saw it, but I have no desire to immediately run back and see it again.

The evening at the Folger ended with the amazing walk back home that took me right past the Supreme Court building, and around the capitol itself, which presents a dramatic view at night in the drizzle, back down Constitution and Pennsylvania avenues. It’s a stroll that always puts my in awe of being in DC.