Despite ‘Much ado’ about concept, PSC’s acting falls short

This version of “Much Ado About Nothing,” produced by the Princeton Shakespeare Company and directed by Amy Gobel ’12, opens to a picturesque tableau of mid-20th century American suburbia. A charcoal grill sizzles, two actors languidly toss a football, a few others relax on a pastel picnic blanket. We are still in Messina, but this Messina is a thriving Illinois suburb, not the Sicilian port city.

Gobel’s stated objective for the production, as the elegant advertising posters plastered around campus proclaim, is to turn Shakespeare’s comedy into “an exploration of the American Dream.” In her program notes, she argues that the play’s plot encompasses “all the charm and all the bitterness of the 1950s,” depicting a society content with its “facade of perfection,” even as a large portion of the population — including Don John (Brandon Bark ’13), whom Gobel sees as a Korean war veteran forgotten within months of returning home — is marginalized. Extending the loose analogy further, Gobel likens Don John’s scheme to discredit Hero — the pivotal action of “Much Ado About Nothing” — to the hearings held by the House Un-American Activities Committee. It’s an intriguing premise for updating the comedy, and it continues PSC’s strong tradition of creatively modernizing Shakespeare, as it did last season with Gobel’s “As You Like It,” set in 1920s New York.

The design work in the first act by Aryeh Stein-Azen ’13, highlighted by the charming set in the first scene, is particularly effective in realizing Gobel’s vision for the play. It is meticulously detailed while compact and modular enough not to feel oversized in the tight confines of the Class of 1970 Theatre in Whitman College. The backdrop for the masquerade ball at which Don Pedro (Patrick Morton ’13) courts Hero (Jenna Devine ’12) on behalf of Claudio (Evan Thompson ’14), consists of a blue banner, hand-painted to say, “Welcome back, defenders of freedom.” It is strung between two artificial ficus trees, and it casts the play as an explicit meditation on the transition from war to peacetime and the glossy veneer of 1950s suburbia.

The production features original music composed by Christopher Jacoby during each transition. The pleasant tunes immediately evoke the popular music of the 1950s and are an effective reinforcement of Gobel’s chosen setting. Sarah Anne Sillers ’13 as Ursula also sings beautifully in an early scene. The sound designer, Alex Craig ’12, rightly deserves praise.

Unfortunately, other aspects of the production do less to complement Gobel’s objectives. The costumes, designed by Aliyah Donsky ’14, are vaguely modern but not particularly suggestive of 1950s middle-class American style. Additionally, the actors make few performance choices that acknowledge the transfiguration of the comedy into a consideration of post-war American society. The acting is of varying quality, but it generally feels disconnected from the overall objectives of the production. This uncomfortable blend of traditional and modernizing tactics collectively fails to convey a coherent vision.

For instance, Bark is occasionally superb at capturing Don John’s tangible discomfort with the society around him, but more often plays him as a one-dimensional trickster lacking serious complexity and not rooted in any particular time period. To substantially strengthen the production, Gobel’s conception of Don John as a Korean War veteran struggling to readjust to civilian life and class differences of the 1950s could have been made more explicit through a combination of costuming and different acting choices by Bark. Such changes would add both coherence and a strongly relevant critique of the costs of war after the battles have ended.

PSC veterans Paul Bangiola ’11 (the company’s former artistic director) as Leonato, Morton as Don Pedro and Julia Keimach ’12 (PSC’s current president) as Beatrice all deliver strong, assured performances. Bangiola, aided by a copious application of talcum powder to his hair that at times left a cloud of dust around his head, excels at establishing the age difference between himself and many of the other characters. Tadesh Inagaki ’14 and Joseph Labatt ’14 turn in enthusiastic performances as Benedick and Friar Francis, respectively. Andres Delgado ’13 is entertaining as the bumbling, malapropism-prone constable, but, despite portraying the most exaggerated of characters, overplays certain scenes.

In the final minutes, it is easy to lose sight of the engaging premise and impressive dramaturgical and technical work behind this staging of “Much Ado About Nothing.” The plot meanders toward its resolution, the stage is nearly bare and Delgado looks and acts nothing like a ’50s cop. Overall, this production is flawed but has enough good scenes and good ideas to warrant a trip to the theater.