Word: escalus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Director Kirk Williams sets the play in the South. Or does he? Steve Latham delivers a brilliant performance as the kindly old- guard judge, Escalus, gone Dixie. He presents an enchanting vision of a genteel southern drunkard, wracked by guilt. But apart from the bourbon shots that the authorities knock back in moments of stress, the Old South interpretation ends there...
...double casting of Friar Lawrence and Prince Escalus presents less of a problem. Jeffrey Korn plays both; his low, reassuring, measured tone of voice as the Friar is easilv distinguishable from the more urgent tenor he gives to the Prince. But these two characters do not relate to the plot and to each other the way the other double-cast characters...
...production is full of independently satisfying results its music, visual effects, and acting. Of the minor characters, Ben Halley Jr. as the Provost, Jeremy Geidt as Escalus, and John Bottoms as Pompey turn in strong performances. But as a whole Andrei Belgrader's direction lacks a sufficiently strong vision of the play as a whole to dominate the individual elements and fuse them into a coherent interpretation, something intellectual satisfying rather than merely titillating...
...Romeo's sidekick Benvolio, whom Shakespeare strangely allows to vanish completely from the play at the half-way point, Larry Carpenter lacks naturalness of speech. Theodore Sorel hoots his way through Prince Escalus, Wyman Pendleton is a hoarse Montague, and Donald Warfield's Paris is a proper stuffed shirt...
David Rounds brings plenty of verve to the role of Lucio, the quick-witted, cynical, slanderous libertine who bridges the gap between the aristocracy and the rabble. Wyman Pendleton imbues the aging counselor Escalus with warmth. And Alvah Stanley, with axe, rope and chains, is properly intimidating as the executioner Abhorson--a unique name that Shakespeare fashioned, in the manner of the pivot-word so common in Japanese poetry, by fusing 'abhor' and 'whoreson...