Word: proteus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...meantime, predictably enough, the scorner of love falls like a clay pigeon for Silvia, the lovely daughter of the Duke, and his love throes are even more tortured and ludicrous than Proteus's. But when Proteus arrives he, too, is smitten by Silvia's beauty, resolves to lose his friend, Julia, and himself to win her. The rest of the play revolves around Proteus's despicable betrayals of friend and lover in his attempt to have the reluctant Silvia...
...climactic scene, Proteus tries to rape Silvia in the woods only to be discovered by Valentine. Here Shakespeare resorts to implausible devices to save this play as comedy, because no sooner does Proteus make a lame apology than Valentine forgives him all, and offers to give him Silvia in the bargain. Deus ex Machina, in the form of the Duke, restores order, and all the right couples reunite happily, apparently suffering from collective amnesia as far as the past four acts are concerned...
...central failure in the production is Steven Aveson's Proteus. Saddled with a part that is admittedly difficult to portray convincingly, Aveson capitulates and portrays almost no character at all. He stands around with his chest thrust out and his eyes fixed on the overhead lights, looking like a linebacker at a frat party. He delivers his speeches with hardly any grasp of the emotional contradictions that torment Proteus and can only smile dumbly and bounce on his toes, as he does in the climactic scene at the end, to show that his character is disturbed...
Another character who pulls the show up is Launce, a simple servant whose devotion to his dog, Crab, serves as an ironic commentary on Proteus's infidelity. Greg Cattell Johnson steals the show with his charmingly moronic performance, particularly in his first scene where he laments leaving his family and berate's his dog's lack of emotion. Even the dog gets laughs, yawning and wagging his tail...
Kirsten Giroux's Julia is somewhat too petulant and childish in the first two acts, but when she disguises herself as a page to pursue Proteus, she makes more of her part and ends up being pleasantly engaging. The rest of the cast, with one exception, is conventional, adequate, and relatively nondescript...