Gallathea by John Lyly, Poor Shadows of Elysium at Trinity Street Black Box Theatre, First Baptist Church, January 3 - 19, 2014

 



by Michael Meigs

Kevin Gates is intensely dedicated to the text of early modern English drama. In the same secret space where he was transformed into Shakespeare's Coriolanus just over a year ago, he has conjured up a graceful and whimsical staging of a work from the London of 1588 that you've not seen and probably have never heard of: John Lyly's Gallathea.

It's a pastorale that provides definitive evidence that Shakespeare wasn't the only dramatist whose plots sent young ladies disguised in men's clothing off to adventures, amorous and otherwise. Lyly's play was performed by the Children of St. Paul's for Queen Elizabeth on New Year's Day, Gates notes, and the Virgin Queen no doubt appreciated the many references to the 'virgins' in the leading roles: Gallathea and Phillida, whose fathers sent them off under manly cover in order to escape sacrifice to the god Neptune.

Rachel Steed-Redig, Kristin Hall (photo: Bridget Farias)

One amusing hitch to this strategem: the two sweet women fall in love with one another.

You've certainly seen other avatars of Gallathea, by the way, for in Greek mythology she was the sculpture carved by Pygmalion and endowed with life by Aphrodite. George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion was the basis for My Fair Lady. And pastoral scenes were dotted throughout early modern European literature. Gates cites a 1574 play by Torquato Tasso. It so happens that Miguel de Cervantes' first work, a verse compendium published in 1585, was La Galatea.

Lyly's story shares little with the legend or those literary works except for a pastoral setting where various Greek gods vie with one another to exert dominion over the small number of rustics inhabiting the forest. Lyly sends three plots spinning through this 90-minute performance: the flight of the virgins and their finding of one another; the misadventures of some penniless brothers in search of fortune or at least of regular employment; and Cupid's attempts to cast tricksy spells upon huntress Diana's band of vestals, an effort to entice them from chastity to the pleasures of love.

Click to read more at CTXLT.com . . . . 

Director Kevin Gates Discusses John Lyly's Gallathea, Poor Shadows of Elysium, January 3 - 19, 2014

On the theatre company's blog Kevin Gates discusses the upcoming second production of Austin's Poor Shadows of Elysium: Gallathea by John Lyly (ca. 1588), to be presented January 3 - 19 at the black box theatre of Trinity Street Players, 4th floor, First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity Street, Austin.

Tickets are $10, available in advance via

 

 

Director Kevin Gates talks about Gallathea

Torquato Tasso is best known for his poetry and his insanity. He died only a few days before he was to be crowned “king of the poets” by the Pope. His poetry is largely forgotten in the English-speaking world, but his legacy still lives in our collective consciousness. In 1573, Tasso’s play, Aminta, was performed before the Duke of Ferrara. This pastoral play is extremely difficult to stage effectively, because much of the dialogue describes action that occurred offstage. The play features nymphs and satyrs, Cupid and Venus. If I were to try to describe what the play is about in one sentence, it would be something along the lines of, “What is the true nature of love?”

Rachel Steed-Redig, Kristin Hall (photo: Bridget Farias)

In 1588, John Lyly’s play, Gallathea, was performed before Queen Elizabeth I by the Children of Paul’s. Gallathea features nymphs, Cupid, and Venus, and asks the same question. The action of the two plays are different, and Gallathea is much more English in its approach, since it features a comic subplot, but the theme, setting, and characters of the two plays are very similar.

I decided to direct Gallathea for Poor Shadows primarily because it was the opposite of our last production, Richard II, in many ways (it’s a comedy, in verse, with many substantial female roles). But possibly the most rewarding thing for me about digging into this text has been discovering the echoes of this play in later works by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Scholars have compared parts of the play to The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and As You Like It. Parts of this play also call to my mind Romeo and Juliet (the fathers remind me of Capulet and Montague), Love’s Labour’s Lost (lovers hiding and listening to another confess their love in a soliloquy), and Twelfth Night (Toby and Andrew discussing which signs of the zodiac rule which parts of the body). And obviously, the Alchemist and his boy, and their lists of spirits and bodies, call to mind Jonson’s play on the subject.

At first blush, Gallathea is very light and not very deep, but there’s one aspect of the play that I think defies that impression. (SPOILER ALERT) To escape the curse of Neptune, two young virgins are disguised by their fathers as boys. The two girls meet in the woods and, each thinking the other to be a boy, fall in love. In the final scene, when they discover they’re both girls, the reaction of the bystanders is predictable. But the reactions of the two girls are surprising. Diana tells them they must “leave these fond affections,” and Gallathea replies, “I will never love any but Phillida.” Phillida agrees. “Nor I any but Gallathea.” Their love is based on something deeper than gender. Although the social order might not approve (Venus says she’ll change one of them into a boy), neither of the girls cares, as long as they can be together. It’s the viewpoint of the two girls that I find so interesting in this play, and I’ve tried to enhance the focus on that element in our show.

The Early Modern English drama is my area of interest, so, of course, I find this play really interesting for many reasons. But I think our show will still be very entertaining for regular, non-nerdy people, too.

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. . . .