Word: duking
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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While mocking popular melodramas of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century England, Ruddygore is a melodrama in its own right. The plot revolves around a country gentleman Robin Oakapple (Phillip Resnick) who has run away from his position as the duke of Murgatroyd because in order to be duke, he must follow a long-standing family tradition and (of course) commit a crime a day. Oakapple falls in love with the beautiful village maiden Rose Maybud (Erika Fox Zabusky) who has a particular fetish with etiquette...
...hardest to hear. He has occasion to sing numerous solos, most of which get drowned out by the frequently overpowering orchestra. Resnick has an excellent stage presence and he delivers his dramatic lines well, strongly conveying his character's unwillingness to accept his role as the crime-committing Duke of Murgatroyd. Yet he speaks his songs, and we never get a chance to hear his real voice...
...Measure is the story of Angelo, the Duke of Vienna's deputy, who is given the task of enforcing the city's disregarded laws while the Duke is away traveling. In the course of purging the city of its sins, Angelo condemns to death a young gentleman, Claudio, for getting his finance, Juliet, with child. Claudio's sister, Isabella, pleads in vain for her brother's life. Angelo in return displays a lack of pity which proves all the more hidcous when his own unbridled lust is uncovered. In the end, Christian mercy and the "natural order" of life prevail...
...technical aspects of the show work to suggest this artificial world. At one point a xylophone is used to simulate time by ticking like a clock; at another, a miniature bridge symbolizes the route over which the Duke returns. Douglas Stein's fine sets are composed of a very few, very impressive pieces rising out of the otherwise bare stage. Each piece--throne, castle, tree and brothel--is meant to stand for a separate sub-world. Each individual costume is also fully realized--the perpetual prisoner appears very realistic, while the nuns wear stylized haloes--but with both costumes...
...director, most actors suffer from a lack of confidence. Most lines are delivered too quickly. Uncertain about their characters, or about their characters' relationships with other characters, many actors fling their lines away rather than directing them at the audience or another character. Robert Stattel as the Duke is the worst offender in this regard, often literally spitting out his lines; since the Duke has several long and emotional scenes, the results range from something resembling a temper tantrum to outright melodrama. A similar lack of control hampers the performances of Marianna Owen as Isabella and John Bellucci as Claudio...