The Spanish Tragedie by Thomas Kyd, Baron's Men at the Curtain Theatre, October 17 - November 9, 2013

(www.thebaronsmen.org)

by Michael Meigs

Villainy was afoot and revenge was hot at the tidy Elizabethan-style Curtain Theatre on opening weekend, but Karen insisted that I bundle up as if I was going hiking in the winter mountains. And she was right; the temp must have sunk to around 50 F. by the time C. Robert Stevens as Hieronimo had coaxed the malefactors at the Spanish courtinto the play-within-a-play that's the climax of The Spanish Tragedie.

This costume drama by Thomas Kyd leaves almost as many dead and dying littered about the stage as Shakespeare did, between ten and twenty years later, at the conclusion of Hamlet . Kyd's work established the fashion for the revenge tragedy and endured on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stages until the Puritans shut the theatres in 1642.

Robert Stevens (photo: The Baron's Men)

The Baron's Men in Austin are proud to claim that theirs is the first 'original practices' staging in North America of this influential work that comes close to the status of a classic. As usual, they do a gorgeous job of it. The bare boards of that Elizabethan stage become a display case for lots of actors wearing the creations of some of the town's most accomplished costumers. Cherie Weed's casting and energetic direction keep the Tragedie lively throughout, a surprising and gratifying blend of comedy and revenge. The company enjoys its pre-Halloween shiver-makers -- they have twice staged their own compendium titled Medieval Macabre -- and this lengthy but never dull evening fits very well into the run-up to Halloween. Not least because it features the hovering figures of Death (Jennifer Fielding) and Revenge (Leanna Homquist) throughout the action.

Kyd was certainly playing to his public when he situated these elaborate deceits and plots at the Spanish court. Londoners feared and hated the Spanish, who sought to attack England with their glorious armada in 1588 (within five years, plus or minus, of the play's first staging). The playwright presents a triumphant Spanish king (Michael Saenger) who has just defeated the Portuguese, taking prisoner Crown Prince Balthazar. With Spain's dominion reasserted, the court is eager to unite the two kingdoms with an arranged marriage between the Portuguese Prince and Bel-Impera, Spain's lovely royal niece.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Shakespeare's Husbands & Wives, adapted and directed by Jill K. Swanson, February 24 - March 5

In this diverse fast-food town you can even get tasty Bard bits in a quick drive-by. No carry-outs, other than the program for Shakespeare's Husbands & Wives, but you're assured of comfortable seating and a varied menu at a session only 40 minutes in length. This Wednesday through Friday only, at the Blue Theatre, 916 Springdale Road, for the modest contribution of $10.

Jill K. Swanson has appeared often on Austin stages over the past dozen years, and she is the guiding spirit at Austin Shakespeare's weekly Sunday afternoon Shakespeareklatches, more properly titled "Shakespeare Aloud." For two hours every Sunday, usually from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., the doors are open to anyone who wants to participate in reading and commenting upon whichever of the Bard's works is on the table. Right now they're reading Henry V.

Swanson assembled short scenes from seven of the plays and invited eleven actors to play them. She comments in program notes, "Shakespeare dives right in and explores these issues [of matrimonial relations], weaving all kinds of marriages into his plays, while the plays themselves are often on another subject entirely. . . . Each scene reflects a different dynamic, perhaps one you recognize from your own marriage."

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder, Different Stages at the Vortex, November 13 - December 5

Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth is 67 years old but it plays as if it had been written and workshopped last week by one of those Austin indie arts groups of which we are so proud.

It's wild stuff --a history of humankind as embodied by the Antrobus family, with a mad mix-up of times, epic figures, surreal settings and primal myths. Refract that story through the lens of a dramatic structure that the author and actors keep yanking out from under you, dress it up with Lowell Bartholomee's videos, and live with the fact that you never know what's going to happen next.

Wilder wasn't shy about announcing the epic proportions of this tragicomedy. The family's last name is "Antrobus" -- a label that shouts "human being" or "humankind," derived from the Greek άνθρωπος ("anthropos" -- as in, for example, "anthropology").

Your first act is located in an apparently modern New Jersey, except that it's not modern -- the Ice Age is encroaching.

Read more and view images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .