Word: silvia
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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BORN. To Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf, 33, and his German-born wife Queen Silvia, 35; their first son, second child; in Stockholm. Name: Carl Philip Edmund Bertil, Duke of Värmland...
...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...
...breathe a bit more life into his role, especially after the first act. Though he looks like an emaciated Ted Baxter--complete with stiff face and silver hair--he carries off the more serious side of Valentine adequately. Woronicz provides a decent opposite to Catherine Rust's marvelous Silvia. Echoing Juliet's poignancy, Silvia is the best realized character in Shakespeare's script, and Rust does the part justice and more. Her voice shakes with genuine emotion and her gestures have none of the stiffness that hampers the rest of the cast. She saves the production from utter desuetude...
That one exception is David Michael Berti as Sir Eglamour, the bit part knight who helps Silvia escape in Act V. He leaps on stage wearing silver boots, a white cape, silver leggings and a white tunic with a heraldic device on the front. Shazzam! It's Disco Superman! The house howled at every word. Berti played it to the hilt, flourishing his cape and pouncing about the stage like Batman, delivering his lines with Marvel Comics bravado. As comedy this bogus touch was great, but as Shakespeare it seemed rather strained and out of sorts with the prevailing traditionalism...