The battle between the sexes rages on. However, women wind up being in control.
Women and men have always vied for control over each other, and William Shakespeare’s plays have never been the exception to that rule. In the 24th annual Kern Shakespeare Festival, this is still quite true, especially in Bakersfield College director Randy Messick’s “Troilus and Cressida” and in director Bob Kempf’s “Taming of the Shrew.”
In “Troilus and Cressida” and “Taming of the Shrew,” women appear to be helpless pawns in the grip of ego-driven, bellicose men, but in reality, they have more control than what appears on the surface. Take Cressida, for example, from “Troilus and Cressida,” a play about the romance between two young Trojans at the height of the Trojan War. On the surface, Cressida appears the young innocent who wears “heaven in her cheek” and is played, at least initially, with what appears to be classic ingénue charm by Candice Zent.
However, the viewer soon hears Cressida engaging in coy, sly dialogue with her lecherous and manipulative uncle Pandarus, played with appropriate despicableness by the homely, goggle-eyed Bob Kempf.
One realizes, through Zent’s polished acting, that Cressida is not an unaffected young thing but rather a seasoned flirt in complete control. She knows Troilus pines for her, and that Pandarus is eager to manipulate Troilus and her into a relationship.
Indeed, Cressida has a cynical attitude toward men in general; she knows men value the merry chase more than the prize or goal. She remarks, “Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing / That she beloved knows naught that knows not this: Men prize the thing ungained more than it is.” Therefore, the viewer realizes that the seemingly girlish laughter of Zent’s Cressida is really mocking and derisive as she and Troilus hasten to the bedchamber sequestered by Pandarus; it perfectly foreshadows Cressida’s later unfaithfulness. Zent does well with her character’s veneer of naivete with cynicism underneath. Kempf conveys Pandarus’ delight in overseeing the tryst between Troilus and Cressida.
Another acting standout is Ron Warren as the craven, cynical clown Thersites who comments, “All is war and lechery” and is in frequent contention with the dim Greek warrior Ajax (Steven Littles).
Unfortunately, Anthony Patterson (Troilus) and Paris (John Spitzer) somehow fail to bring depth to their characters although they deliver the Shakespearean language well and with clear understanding. Physically speaking, Patterson and Spitzer simply do not look like virile, athletic, indomitable warriors; they both need to do some serious buffing up. Joe Mitchell (Ulysses) is the only actor who looks close enough to being a well-built warrior.
Perhaps the directorial choices of casting could have been better, but Shakespeare purists might appreciate the overall lack of interpretation of the play. Nevertheless, Messick makes an interesting directorial choice in insinuating that wraith-like females haunting the Greek warrior Achillles (Ryan Watts) spur him on to commit the bloody deed upon the unarmed Trojan hero Hector (Ronnie Hargrave). With this albeit sparse interpretation of “Troilus and Cressida,” women are definitely in control.
In KSF’s “Taming of the Shrew,” directed by Kempf, the woman, Katharina (Amy Hall) is the force that drives the action of the play, and, of course, her decision near the end of the play saves her marriage to the feral Petruchio (Jason Monroe) by bestowing upon their union order and structure. As in “Troilus and Cressida,” this KSF “Taming of the Shrew” does not have a great deal of interpretation; it abides more or less by the text of the play in that it is clearly set in Padua, Italy, albeit closer to being set in the eighteenth century, rather than in Shakespeare’s day.
However, many lines in this production of the play are left out, possibly for the sake of brevity and to spare the audience from having to sit for long on the Outdoor Theater benches. In most productions, the entire “Induction” part of “Shrew” with the homeless character Christopher Sly is usually left out as it is in the KSF production. That is not surprising. However, I missed the part in Act IV, Scene I, which features a witty dialogue between Grumio and Curtis, two servants of Petruchio.
These clever lines were sorely missed. For the sake of fairness, though, in KSF’s version, the gymnastic, ever gender-bending Tracy Herda does a dynamic job of dramatizing Petruchio’s speech about facing fierce lions, roiling ocean waves, and enemy artillery. Priceless and indispensable and not left out of the KSF production is the scene near the beginning when the suitors of Bianca (Samantha Gonzales) conspire to get a suitor for her irascible, cranky elder sister Katharina.
The father of the two women, Baptista (Ron Warren), will not allow Bianca to be married until Katharina is married. Elderly suitor to Bianca, Gremio (Jeremiah Heitman) laments, “No man would be married to hell” and Hortensio, yet another Bianca suitor remarks, “I would not wed her for a mine of gold.” The woman in this play, of course, causes the actions of the other characters; she is definitely in control of her world, and she winds up being the one who brings peace and order in the end.
The plays continue their run this week with 8 p.m. shows Oct. 10-13 and Oct. 17-20 at the BC Outdoor Theater.