Every high school English class inevitably teaches William Shakespeare.
We can all recall our teacher trying to get us to understand the flowery language in iambic pentameter of “Macbeth” or “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” being explained to us, along with the assurance that this hard-to-understand and often dry dialogue was actually the greatest heights of the English language.
With Mingus Union High School’s fall theatrical production, “Shakespeare In Love” — adapted for the stage by Lee Hall, based on the 1998 film by the same name written by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman — the high school thespians bring the Bard’s words to life in a whole new way, with a play that portrays not just Shakespeare’s famous words, but a fictionalized portrayal of them that contextualizes them in their own deeply emotional love story. The play opened on Saturday, Oct. 26, with an additional matinee performance on Sunday, Oct. 27.
Mingus senior Zeke Collins plays Will Shakespeare himself, who in 1593 is portrayed as a smart-alecky screw-up who knows he can write poetry better than anyone but wishes he could turn that into the kind of fame and fortune he deserves.
Faced with writer’s block after some middling plays, Will is commissioned to write a simple crowd-pleasing comedy called “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirates’ Daughter” to pay off the debts that his friend Philip Henslowe [Santana Alvarado II], who owns the Rose Theater, owes to a local financier, Fennyman [Trevor Harder].
But, as the title suggests, Shakespeare falls in love. In a moment that he puts straight into the play he is in the process of writing, Will meets a captivating beauty named Viola De Lesseps [Vanessa Alcala] at a dance, and proceeds to woo with his words as she stands on her balcony later in the night.
But, unbeknownst to Shakespeare, Viola, herself a lover of poetry infatuated with the Bard’s writings, has been dressing up as a man to join his own theater troupe, where he is enamored with the passion she/he brings to the role of Romeo. Shakespeare, himself wrapped up in the intense emotions he is feeling with his new romance, starts changing it from the goofy comedy he was supposed to create to turn it into the tragic romance that is still performed today.
The plot of “Shakespeare In Love” draws obvious inspiration from the topsy-turvy cases of mistaken identity, disguises and forbidden love that typify Shakespeare’s best works, but by framing it around an off-stage romance and witty dialogue that escapes from the dense verse of Shakespeare’s works; it leaps off the page and becomes an energetic and fast paced romp through Elizabethan England.
The performance is done without pauses for scene changes, as scenes blend one into another on a truly impressive moving stage built by Mingus’ technical theater department, allowing sets to be prepared fortransitions before the previous set of dialogue is even finished.
The Mingus production hinges around the performance of its titular lead, and Collins easily rises to the challenge. A fan of the film since he was young, Collins said that this version of Shakespeare has long been his dream role, and it shows. His William Shakespeare is dashing and kinetic, silver- tongued and wistful as he runs around 1593 London and gets into trouble. Collins shows the combination of raw ambition, bottomless talent, and deep insecurity that must have been necessary to create a playwright like Shakespeare.
But, what really takes the story to the next level is the power of Shakespeare’s whirlwind romance with Viola. Shakespeare is tasked by Queen Elizabeth I [Mikayla Gaydon, displaying the gravitas of the only character in the play who exists outside of the world of theater] to create a play that can “show us the very truth and nature of love,” and it all hinges on the romance that he has entered into with his cross-dressing actor.
The passion between the two is visible, whether it be the obvious adoration that Viola shows to his words, bringing her to unparalleled heights in her acting, or the attempt at teaching stage-kissing that quickly morphs into the wild abandon of two lovers together.
As you might expect from a play about Shakespeare, much of the dialogue comes straight from the playwright’s own works, as actors playing actors led by one of the stars of the era, Ned Allyn [Aiden Skoch] rehearse and perform words from the nascent “Romeo and Juliet” and other famous works of the era.
To see Collins and Gaydon recite the famous verse of perhaps Shakespeare’s most famous play, imbued with the emotion that these two actors and characters have brought to the stage over the previous hours, is a true treat. “Shakespeare In Love” may be a high school production, but with the way that its performers are able to bring the full weight of the words’ import to the stage, it feels alive and current, so far from the dense verse that flummoxes so many in English class.
“Shakespeare In Love” has three additional performances, Friday, Nov. 1, and Saturday, Nov. 2, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 3, at 3 p.m.. Tickets are $12 for adults, $11 for children, and $8 for children if bought in advance, or $3 more at the door. Advance tickets can be purchased at atort.ludus.com, in person at the MUHS bookstore, or by calling the box office at 649-4466.
