[NEohioPAL] Review of "The Miracle at Naples" at Convergence-Continuum

[Bob Abelman]

The Bard meets burlesque in Con-Con's 'Miracle at Naples'

 

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 7/8/11

 

It's not as if playwright David Grimm doesn't give fair warning.  

 

Nonetheless, everything about his The Miracle at Naples and Convergence-Continuum's staging of it suggests that an authentic piece of 16th century commedia dell'arte has been slotted for the evening's entertainment. 

 

True to the standard operating procedure of this time-honored art form, the play features a company of theater vagabonds traveling through Italy to offer its repertoire of farcical comedies. In Naples for a festival, the troupe awaits the annual miracle-the liquefaction of the blood of the city's patron saint-so the festivities can begin and they can perform their craft for the revelers.  

 

The troupe consists of stock commedia characters, including an adventurous leader, Don Bertolino (Robert Hawkes); a physical misfit, his daughter La Piccola (Lauren Smith); a randy servant, his nephew Tristano (Ray Caspio); a clown, Tristano's dim-witted pal Matteo (Zac Hudak); and Giancarlo (Stuart Hoffman), a handsome hero-type full of false bravado.

 

There's the traditional plot twist of young lovers battling the disapproval of their elders.  Giancarlo and Flaminia (Emily Pucell), a local beauty, fall in love despite nursemaid Francescina's (Lucy Bredeson-Smith) warnings.  There's comedy based on gullible masters being deceived by tricky servants.  There's commentary about class differences and the folly of faith.

 

Everyone is appropriately dressed in magnificent period masks and costuming, courtesy of Laurel Johnson.  Baroque music is in the air.  The set design by Jim Smith offers a taste of late-1500s Italy, with flower baskets everywhere and statues of saints lining the narrow, tiled piazza that is the performance space.    

 

But then comes the realization that Convergence-Continuum doesn't do Elizabethan drama or Renaissance comedy.  

 

Then, too, comes that fair warning from the playwright-that opening line uttered by the sweet, innocent ingénue Flaminia-that sets this piece of commedia dell'arte pastiche off in a very different direction:  "To hell with my virginity."  

 

Actual commedia dell'arte doesn't shy away from bawdy humor, but it becomes very clear very quickly that this play is in it up to the eyeballs.  In fact, there is little in 

The Miracle at Naples that does not go for the groin (and other delicate areas) and hit its target squarely.   As the play progresses, its veil of couth dissipates and in its place is a preponderance of lewd scenarios, crude wordplay, and F-bombs galore.  

 

The thing is that this is all very funny stuff indeed.  Crudity turns clever when placed within the context of a 16th century comedy, and F-bombs are immediately defused when spoken with good intention by exceptionally talented performers.  The Miracle at Naples is very well written, very well designed, and very well performed.

It is also very well directed.  Geoffrey Hoffman does his best to push this production in terms of pacing and playfulness, and it pays off beautifully.  It is clear that he trusts his players without hesitation, for each one has found interesting business to add to the antics.  

Hoffman even involves the audience in a bit of burlesque by having two actors who are engaged in a conversation separated to the far extremes of the performance space.  Audience members stuck in between are required to turn their heads back and forth and back and forth, like commedia dell'arte clowns, to follow each verbal volley.     

The Miracle at Naples is a romp, pure and simple.  It was written in 2009 and commissioned by the New York Shakespeare Festival.  The play was never produced there, perhaps because it was too bawdy even for Bard enthusiasts, but it has certainly found a home at Con-Con.

 

The Miracle at Naples continues through July 23 at Convergence-Continuum's Liminis Theatre.  For tickets, which range from $10 to $15, call 216-687-0074 or visit www.convergence-continuum.org.
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