Shakespeare may have seemed to some to be class conscious and sexist, but he understood human nature.
Shakespeare evidently understood the double standard held by men, because his character, the marriage-shy Benedick (Don Kruszka), from “Much Ado About Nothing,” quips about his future wife’s qualifications, “She must be virtuous, or I’ll never cheapen her.”
Shakespeare also understood the battle between the sexes because Benedick’s love interest, Beatrice (Cory Rickard), remarks wryly when she is asked if she will ever be ready to marry, “Not ’til God makes men of another mettle than earth.”
The universal appeal of Shakespeare’s understanding of human nature is undeniable, yet the modern viewer cannot ignore Shakespeare’s class-consciousness and sexism.
Nevertheless, to enjoy his plays, the modern viewer must be somewhat forgiving and focus more on Shakespeare’s witty insights into human character.
With this in mind, one can enjoy “the skirmish of wit between” Benedick and Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Furthermore, before the viewer goes to see either “Much Ado” or “The Tempest,” also showing at Bakersfield College’s Outdoor Theatre, and directed, respectively by Randy Messick and Bob Kempf, he or she must bear in mind that the witticisms are the most important part of the plays since plays of earlier eras were written more to be heard than to be seen; this concept is very difficult for the modern spectator to grasp, since modern entertainment is geared more toward visual, rather than auditory, perception. In earlier times, theater goers went “to hear” a play, rather than “to see” a play.
Nevertheless, Kern Shakespeare Festival spectators are not deprived visually; the stage for “Much Ado” is charmingly designed with a wooden trellis covered with flowers, a water fountain and benches.
The stage and the costumes of the soldiers along with the country gentlemen and gentlewomen in “Ado” evoke an image of an 18th- century Napa Valley-like setting.
The viewer’s auditory sense is also rewarded at the beginning with warm, luscious Spanish guitar music.
Visually speaking, the scene depicting a masked ball is notable for the presence of the conspirators led by the iniquitous illegitimate son, Don John (Ron Warren), “.whose spirit is framed in villainy.”
Don John and his cohorts don raven-like black masks, conveying the image of harbingers of evil.
Warren comes across almost a little too heavy-handed in his approach to the embittered, evil Don John with his Anton La Vey-like shaved head, black goatee and ominous vocal tone.
Nevertheless, his portrayal is still interesting to watch. Perhaps it is appropriate in the light of Don John’s comment, “I must smile at no man’s jest.” Ronnie Hargrave needs to tone down his exaggerated, tightly wound portrayal of Claudio, but he still does his character justice. In need of stronger character development is Phillip Velasquez Jr.’s Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon, and Samantha Gonzales’ Hero, the love interest of Claudio. The show stealers were invariably Kruzka’s Benedick and Cory Rickard’s Beatrice, but that was inevitable. The rapier-tongued, but awkward in love Benedick and Beatrice kept the audience laughing, Benedick with his remarks such as that he is “a confessed tyrant to her (Beatrice’s) sex,” and Beatrice’s remark that “A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours” to Benedick.
No less engaging, but by far more poignant is KSF’s production of “The Tempest.”
Nevertheless, “Tempest” begins jauntily enough with saucy nautical music before the onset of the play’s maelstrom.
The dynamism of the actors in the initial scene on the imperiled ship (John Spitzer, Ron Warren, Scott Deaton, Phillip Velasquez, Jr., Ryan Watts) properly conveyed the idea of hapless human beings pitted against the primordial violence of the storm created by the magus Prospero (Randy Messick).
One gets the sense, from the vigorous presentation, that, in the words of one of the characters, “Hell is empty; all the demons are here.”
The storm touchingly proves to be the catalyst for the blossoming womanhood of Prospero’s daughter Miranda (Sarah Taylor) because the storm brings Ferdinand (Keith Silvas) to her. The storm also proves to be the catalyst for the transition of the pagan Prospero to a forgiving Christian.
Notable is Keith Silvas who plays Ferdinand and has an unusually strong, pleasant, resonant voice. Also notable was the nimble Tracy Herda who portrays the puckish, child-like Ariel. Messick’s Prospero has the most touching line in the play when his Prospero says that he “lost his daughter in the tempest.” Prospero really means his daughter grew up.
“Much Ado About Nothing” and “The Tempest” will continue at BC’s Outdoor Theatre through Oct. 11-14 and Oct. 18-21. Showtime begins at 8 p.m. General admission is $5; $3 for students.