Chuck's Choices for the weekend of May 30, 2014

As always, the choices are purely my personal opinion. Take with a grain (or a shaker) of salt.

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New this week:

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents Henry V nightly except for Tuesdays through June 15. Beginning May 26, the production alternates with performances of Henry IV. Performances take place in Shakespeare Glen next to the Art Museum in Forest Park. Curtain time is 8 PM. For more information, visit shakespearefestivalstlouis.org and don't forget to check out my interview with the directors.

My take: The festival's production of Henry IV has already gotten raves and it looks like the sequel is doing the same. In her review for KDHX, Tina Farmer says this is "a well-acted, fast-paced retelling of the glory days of Henry V's reign, from the battle of Agincourt, where Henry prevailed against the odds, to the resulting peace, sealed with the marriage of Henry and Katherine."

Photo: John Lamb

St. Louis Actors' Studio continues its seventh season, themed Sins of the Father, with Pinter's The Homecoming through June 8. "In an old and slightly seedy house in North London there lives a family of men: Max, the aging, crude patriarch, his ineffectual brother Sam and two of Max's three sons, both unmarried- Lenny, a small-time pimp and Joey, who dreams of success as a boxer. Into this sinister abode comes the eldest son Teddy, now a successful professor of philosophy in America. After six years abroad, Teddy brings his wife Ruth, to meet the family for the first time. In the style that became a trademark, Pinter creates mounting tension, with insidiously bizarre accusations and proposals by the men to Ruth, The Homecoming gives way to an ominous game of cat and mice." Performances take place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information, call 314-458-2978 or visit stlas.org.

My take: Pinter is an acquired taste; it took me many years and the experience of actually acting in a Pinter script to appreciate the nuances of a writer who implies rather than states. "Harold Pinter's tale of family dysfunction," writes Tina Farmer in her review for KDHX, "is a well-acted, sharply directed and tightly produced piece, driven by a surprisingly satisfying level of dark humor and absurdity."

Held Over:

Photo: Peter Wochniak

Stages St. Louis presents the musical Always..Patsy Cline through June 22. "Jacqueline Petroccia and Zoe Vonder Haar star in the return engagement of the show critics called 'exceptional, must see entertainment.' The touching and true story of Country music legend Patsy Cline and her friendship with Texas housewife Louise Seger returns to STAGES this spring. Combining down home country humor, heartache and 27 of Patsy Cline's unforgettable hits such as 'Crazy,' 'WalkinÄô After Midnight,' and 'Sweet Dreams,' Always... Patsy Cline endures as a piece of genuine Americana." Performances take place at The Playhouse at Westport Plaza. For more information, visit stagesstlouis.org or call 314-821-2407.

My take: Call this a qualified recommendation. If you're a lover of Patsy Cline or country music in general, I think you'll have a great time at this show, which is really more of a celebrity impersonation review than a book musical per se. Jacqueline Petroccia captures Cline's voice and manner so accurately it's eerie and Zoe Vonder Haar is a hoot and a half as Louise Seger, the real-life Houston fan who became a close friends and correspondent of Cline. With over two dozen Patsy Cline hits performed to perfection by Ms. Petroccia and a six-piece band, the show is a real feast for fans. See my KDHX review for more information.

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents Henry IV nightly except for Tuesdays, May 15 through June 14. Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, written as two separate plays, have been edited to fit into one evening. Beginning May 25, the production alternates with performances of Henry V. "Audience members can expect a once-in-a-lifetime theatrical experience this season," said Rick Dildine, Artistic and Executive Director of Shakespeare Festival St.Louis. "Many theaters around the world have performed these plays in consecutive seasons; however, we are performing them at the same time with the same cast on the same set." Performances take place in Shakespeare Glen next to the Art Museum in Forest Park. Curtain time is 8 PM. For more information, visit shakespearefestivalstlouis.org.

My take: This is a rare opportunity to see two (well, three, if you count the two parts of Henry IV) of Shakespeare's history plays back to back and with a single unifying concept. Costuming is period, but the themes are timeless. As Tim Ocel says in his director's notes for Henry IV, this is "the story of human beings shaping a civilization...Shakespeare saw that the future inclines to those who believe in a forward moving energy, not to those who hold back mankind's potential due to a selfish lack of vision." If that sounds familiar it's probably because, as Walt Kelly once wrote, "those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve, then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tiny blasts of tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us."  Check out my interview with the directors for more information.

New Jewish Theater presents Old Jews Telling Jokes through June 1. "Think you've heard them all before? Think again! If you've ever had a mother, visited a doctor or walked into a bar with a priest, a rabbi and a frog, OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES will sit in the dark, give you a second opinion and ask you where you got that. You'll laugh til you plotz. It is a kosher pickle barrel full of laughs! Straight from NY, this is the first independent production; recommended for mature audiences." Performances take place in the Marvin and Harlene Wool Studio Theater at the Jewish Community Center, 2 Millstone Campus Drive in Creve Coeur. For more information: www.newjewishtheatre.org or call 314-442-3283.

My take: "I'm sorry not to be able to delve into the arc of the plot or the themes that this evening investigates," writes Steve Callahan in his review for 88.1 KDHX, "for in fact there are none. But after all, whaddya get when five old Jews walk into a theatre? You get—at its simplest, at its purest—entertainment." Besides, any show that includes a sing-along version of Tom Lehrer's "I'm Spending Hannukah in Santa Monica" has got my vote. So go, already. Enjoy.

Minterview: Tim Ocel and Bruce Longworth

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[Minterview = mini-interview]

Now that St. Louis in in the midst of its annual bout of baseball fever, it seems only appropriate that, starting this weekend and running through June 15th, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis is offering local theatre fans a double header by presenting two plays in Forest Park instead of the usual one.

Or maybe it's a triple play, since one those plays—Henry IV—is actually a combination of scenes from two plays: Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2. Taken together with the second play, Henry V, they offer the sprawling, bawling, bawdy, and violent "coming of age" story of young Prince Hal. His character arc takes him from the "party hearty" scofflaw and companion of Falstaff to the noble King Henry V, for whom Shakespeare wrote one of his most inspiring and poetic soliloquies: the famous "St. Crispin's Day" speech to the English troops on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt.

I asked directors Tim Ocel (Henry IV) and Bruce Longworth (Henry V) some questions about the two plays and their approaches to them.

Q: The Henry IV you're presenting this season is actually a combination of Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2. Who did the compilation and what kinds of challenges did that project present?

Tim Ocel: I did the compilation; the biggest challenge was deciding what part of the core story to concentrate on and how much of Part 2 to keep. The sequence of events surrounding the Coronation event at the end of the play was also something we tinkered with for a while, it needs to be concise but not rushed...we also tried to keep the story moving forward, bringing us into the events that drive Henry V.

Tim Ocel and Bruce Longworth examine
the draft set design for Henry IV and V

Q: In Shakespeare's England it was reasonable to assume that the audience would be somewhat familiar with the history behind Henry V. That's less likely with a contemporary American audience. How to you make this play speak to that audience? Are there themes that you think are universal enough to transcend any lack of familiarity with the history?

Bruce Longworth: The themes in the play are, indeed, universal. It's a play about courage, faith, fortitude, uncertainty and human doubt, all within the context of war. It's about a young man grappling with what it means to be a King. And though the notion of kingship isn't part of our American culture, the story of heroic struggle against overwhelming odds is. The story of the play is clear and that, combined with these familiar themes, should easily transcend the lack of familiarity with the history for our audience.

Q: Until the last 100 years or so, the rebellious Harry Percy ("Hotspur") was often seen as the true protagonist of Henry IV Part 1. These days Prince Hal is seen that way. What do you see as the balance between these characters? Is that reflected in our adaptation?

Tim Ocel: The protagonist crown is worn by King Henry IV...although it's not that tidy; since lawful succession is actually what the story rest upon, the protagonist crown is somewhat shared between Father and Son -- there is a solid line connecting those two (King Henry/Prince Hal). Hotspur and Falstaff are the somewhat balanced antagonists in the story; they threaten the solidarity of England, morally and physically, from different corners of the play's universe. They threaten the unity of the royal family, threaten to undermine a clean succession, and threaten the advancement of civilization by advancing anarchy, turmoil, and disregard for the Law.

Elaborating on the universality of the themes in his director's notes for Henry IV, Mr. Ocel observes that the play "is the story of human beings shaping a civilization."

"The play," he notes, "believes in civilization – the ability of the world to become more fair and lawful; a world less inclined to chaos. In the play (though we love them both on some level) Falstaff and Hotspur offer neither civilized behavior nor a path to a better world. So though Hal's relationship with his father is strained, at least the dying King Henry offers a future filled with possibilities...even if the responsibility of that future rests, fatally, on the King.

"Shakespeare saw that the future inclines to those who believe in a forward moving energy, not to those who hold back mankind's potential due to a selfish lack of vision."

If that sounds like these plays have some contemporary resonance, that's probably because Shakespeare, like all great artists, was able to go beyond the specifics of his time and place and touch on universal human themes. It's why Shakespeare can still speak to an audience removed centuries in time and thousands of miles in space from his world.

The essentials: Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents Henry IV tonight and Saturday this week (May 16 and 17). Next week it's Henry V Thursday through Saturday (May 22-24). Starting on Sunday, May 25, Henry IV and Henry V alternate nights except for Tuesdays when there are no performances. Performances start at 8 PM and are preceded at 6 PM by the Green Show—a 20-minute version of the mainstage show along with strolling performers of various persuasions on the green. It all happens at Shakespeare Glen, next to the Art Museum on Art Hill. Performances are free, but you may want to consider renting a chair. For more information: sfstl.com.