Theater Review: A Delightful Ending to the PlayOn! Festival of Translated Shakespeare
The Two Noble Kinsmen
Written by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher
Translated by Tim Slover
Directed by April Cleveland
Starring Fernando Gonzalez, Ben Quinn, and Terry Weagant
Play On! Festival
Classic Stage Company, Manhattan
June 30, 2019
The Two Noble Kinsmen is a drama-comedy written jointly by William Shakespeare and his successor at the King’s Men playhouse, John Fletcher (1579-1625). Its date of 1613-14 makes it the likely last play of the Bard, and came 2-3 years before his death in Stratford. The excellent translation by Tim Slover, a playwright and professor at the University of Utah, brought out the wit and cleverness of the plot, a version of Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales, with a few comic subplots tossed in. It was a highly entertaining two hours, and made me feel like I was at a bawdy entertainment with the crowd in London. Mr. Slover discussed his translation process afterwards. Rather than just going line by line, he first did a prose translation (i.e. no blank or other type of verse), which was performed at the university. He then later transformed this version into Shakespearean verse. Interestingly, he says he did not go back to compare the original to his final draft, instead relying on two separate processes. This is different from most translation processes, but seemed to work quite well, at least with this unfamiliar play.
The plot centers on the two friends Palamon and Arcite, soldiers under the Athenian duke Theseus. They have a classic bromance, but their friendship is tested and eventually disintegrates when they forget the sacred fraternity motto “bros before hos” and instead compete for the hand of the fair Emilia (one saw her first, the other likes her more). This rivalry eventually reaches the extreme of knightly combat for her hand. One dies after falling his horse and the other weds Emelia, while ruing his lost friendship. Fernando Gonzalez and Ben Quinn were funny and convincing as the two kinsmen, playing off one another and hugging/mugging like fraternity bros. There’s also a wonderful subplot for the jailer’s daughter (the dryly hysterical Terry Weagant) who goes mad over unrequited love for Palamon and wanders about as sort of a classic fool, stating inanities and insights in alternate sentences. This is a great role, played terrifically here. She ends up betrothed to a suitor who deceitfully pretends to be Palamon—this arrangement makes her father the jailer happy, as he wants his troublesome daughter off his hands.
The play was mostly read from stands, with some limited but very effective group interaction. This included a wonderful scene in which a pedantic schoolmaster prepares a group of rustics to do a Morris Dance (local folk dance, usually done by men with sticks and bells), accompanied by another peasant dressed as an ape, all for the amusement of the passing Duke Theseus. There wasn’t much time for preparing sophistocated choreography in the three rehearsal days allotted to the play, but the actors conveyed the spirited, rustic nature of the Morris dance well and amusingly. Young director April Cleveland, a recent MFA graduate, did a wonderful job of keeping the action going and the comic timing precise—she seems to have a gift for getting actors to interact well in groups. This was perhaps the most entertaining of the seven translated plays I saw at the PlayOn! Festival.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, New York’s Classic Stage Company, and PlayOn! festival director Lue Douthit should be commended for sponsoring both the translations and this festival of “complete” translated Shakespeare plays. I was sorry to have seen only seven of the 34 offerings, and the series made me yearn to see more translated Shakespeare. The translated plays uniformly seemed more overtly popular and common, both in good senses. The clarity left my mind uncluttered by its own internal translations, instead allowing me to focus on plot and characters, where it should be. Presented so clearly, these plays needed no directorial reinterpretation or radical reworking. Except for one (King Lear), each translation I saw was clarifying, as if fog were wiped off the mirror. Shakespeare came down just a bit from his pedestal, but rose all the higher in those great moments where his poetry exceeded those of his peers like Fletcher and Marlowe. Just as one appreciates DaVinci better when juxtaposed with lesser Florentine painters, one experiences the titanic Shakespearean highlights all the more when juxtaposed with clearly translated examples of his low comedy, popular entertainment, and collaborative work with other playwrights. I hope these translations will be published and that I will have the chance to see them fully staged in the future. They should be essential reading and viewing for both those new to Shakespeare (hello, public schools!) and veterans.
Written by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher
Translated by Tim Slover
Directed by April Cleveland
Starring Fernando Gonzalez, Ben Quinn, and Terry Weagant
Play On! Festival
Classic Stage Company, Manhattan
June 30, 2019
The Two Noble Kinsmen is a drama-comedy written jointly by William Shakespeare and his successor at the King’s Men playhouse, John Fletcher (1579-1625). Its date of 1613-14 makes it the likely last play of the Bard, and came 2-3 years before his death in Stratford. The excellent translation by Tim Slover, a playwright and professor at the University of Utah, brought out the wit and cleverness of the plot, a version of Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales, with a few comic subplots tossed in. It was a highly entertaining two hours, and made me feel like I was at a bawdy entertainment with the crowd in London. Mr. Slover discussed his translation process afterwards. Rather than just going line by line, he first did a prose translation (i.e. no blank or other type of verse), which was performed at the university. He then later transformed this version into Shakespearean verse. Interestingly, he says he did not go back to compare the original to his final draft, instead relying on two separate processes. This is different from most translation processes, but seemed to work quite well, at least with this unfamiliar play.
The plot centers on the two friends Palamon and Arcite, soldiers under the Athenian duke Theseus. They have a classic bromance, but their friendship is tested and eventually disintegrates when they forget the sacred fraternity motto “bros before hos” and instead compete for the hand of the fair Emilia (one saw her first, the other likes her more). This rivalry eventually reaches the extreme of knightly combat for her hand. One dies after falling his horse and the other weds Emelia, while ruing his lost friendship. Fernando Gonzalez and Ben Quinn were funny and convincing as the two kinsmen, playing off one another and hugging/mugging like fraternity bros. There’s also a wonderful subplot for the jailer’s daughter (the dryly hysterical Terry Weagant) who goes mad over unrequited love for Palamon and wanders about as sort of a classic fool, stating inanities and insights in alternate sentences. This is a great role, played terrifically here. She ends up betrothed to a suitor who deceitfully pretends to be Palamon—this arrangement makes her father the jailer happy, as he wants his troublesome daughter off his hands.
The play was mostly read from stands, with some limited but very effective group interaction. This included a wonderful scene in which a pedantic schoolmaster prepares a group of rustics to do a Morris Dance (local folk dance, usually done by men with sticks and bells), accompanied by another peasant dressed as an ape, all for the amusement of the passing Duke Theseus. There wasn’t much time for preparing sophistocated choreography in the three rehearsal days allotted to the play, but the actors conveyed the spirited, rustic nature of the Morris dance well and amusingly. Young director April Cleveland, a recent MFA graduate, did a wonderful job of keeping the action going and the comic timing precise—she seems to have a gift for getting actors to interact well in groups. This was perhaps the most entertaining of the seven translated plays I saw at the PlayOn! Festival.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, New York’s Classic Stage Company, and PlayOn! festival director Lue Douthit should be commended for sponsoring both the translations and this festival of “complete” translated Shakespeare plays. I was sorry to have seen only seven of the 34 offerings, and the series made me yearn to see more translated Shakespeare. The translated plays uniformly seemed more overtly popular and common, both in good senses. The clarity left my mind uncluttered by its own internal translations, instead allowing me to focus on plot and characters, where it should be. Presented so clearly, these plays needed no directorial reinterpretation or radical reworking. Except for one (King Lear), each translation I saw was clarifying, as if fog were wiped off the mirror. Shakespeare came down just a bit from his pedestal, but rose all the higher in those great moments where his poetry exceeded those of his peers like Fletcher and Marlowe. Just as one appreciates DaVinci better when juxtaposed with lesser Florentine painters, one experiences the titanic Shakespearean highlights all the more when juxtaposed with clearly translated examples of his low comedy, popular entertainment, and collaborative work with other playwrights. I hope these translations will be published and that I will have the chance to see them fully staged in the future. They should be essential reading and viewing for both those new to Shakespeare (hello, public schools!) and veterans.
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