"Stage Kiss" at the Guthrie

As someone who has never worked in theater but is enamored of the whole theater world, I'm often curious about the rehearsal process and how a piece of theater is created. Sarah Ruhl has given us a peek inside that world in her play Stage Kiss, now playing on the Guthrie's Proscenium Stage. I don't know how accurate it is, but it's a pretty hilarious look at the entire process of creating a performance, from audition, to first read-through, to blocking, to dress rehearsal, all the way to opening night. The writing, as delivered by this fantastic cast, is laugh-out-loud funny and the play (which Sarah notes is "for actors") is a loving send-up of acting, theater, and love.

Stage Kiss is one of those play-within-a-play shows (actually two-plays-within-a-play), providing multiple levels and nuances for this great seven-person cast to play with under the sharp direction of Casey Stangl. As opposed to the character of the director, who doesn't seem to have a clue what he's doing in directing a 1930s flop called Last Kiss in a New Haven theater. He seems flummoxed whenever he's asked a question, and often talks about the "slippery" tone of the play, in which a wealthy married woman finds out she's dying, sends for her first love, and is reunited with him, only to watch him run away with her daughter. Complicating the rehearsal process is that the actors playing the woman and her lover are former lovers in real life, with some unresolved feelings about their relationship. The line between art and reality begin to blur as they find themselves drawn to each other, remembering why they fell in love so long ago, until they remember why they broke up. The play has some fantastical elements, as characters in the "reality" portion of the play step out to speak their feelings, or break out in song, while seeming perplexed that they're singing. There's nothing slippery about the tone of Stage Kiss, it's the humor of heightened reality.

Todd Gearhart and Stacia Rice (photo by Joan Marcus)

Six of the seven actors in this cast have multiple roles to play, both in the play world and in the "real" world, and all appear to be having a blast with the wide range of duties, from sitting bored in a rehearsal room to over-the-top acting as characters in the play-within-a-play. Stacia Rice is so funny and natural as the actress, in contrast to the delightfully exaggerated play roles. A dreamy Todd Gearhart is a great match as her lover on stage and off. Michael Booth plays the actress' husband both in the play and in the real world, like flip sides of the same coin. Grant Fletcher Prewitt (half of the great comedy duo that was last year's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) is a scene-stealer with his genius physical comedy skills, eliciting laughter from the audience just from walking onstage in his second act getup. Cat Brindisi and Rebecca Hurd provide great support in multiple roles, both real and deliciously over-the-top. Charles Hubbell is the one member of the cast who exists only in the "real" world, as the amusingly daft director.

the cast of Stage Kiss as the cast of Last Kiss
(photo by Joan Marcus)

Devon Painter should be commended for displaying great range in her costume design, which includes cute and chic modern wear, the glamorous world of the '30s, and outrageous '70s costumes in the second act play-within-a-play (entitled I Loved You Before I Killed You, or Blurry, it's too ridiculous to be described). Todd Rosenthal's set design is also quite versatile with lots of moving pieces and startling transformations. We're taken from the bare stage and brick walls of a theater rehearsal room, to a sleek '30s living room, to a shabby '70s apartment. It's fun to watch the progression of sets and costumes in the ongoing rehearsals in the first act, beginning with street clothes and markings on the floor, slowly adding a wardrobe piece here or there, or a representative piece of furniture or two. If you've ever pored over the rehearsal photos that the Guthrie often includes in their playbills, you'll recognize the idea.

The Guthrie is a busy place this summer with the scrumptious smash hit The Music Man causing larger than usual crowds. I just hope that visitors to River City also check out the Guthrie's many other great offerings, Stage Kiss among them. While The Music Man is a heartwarming and overflowing production of a classic musical about small town America in the last century, Stage Kiss a very funny and modern new play that is an homage to the theater world we love so well (playing now through August 30).

"Hamlet" and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" by The Acting Company at the Guthrie Theater

I think it's safe to say that William Shakespeare's Hamlet is one of the best, most popular, and most produced plays in the world. Tom Stoppard's 1966 play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, made into a movie in 1990, offers us an alternate view of the story from the point of view of two minor characters who, yes, end up dead at the end of the play. The Acting Company, a touring Shakespeare company with close ties to the Guthrie, is currently presenting both plays in repertory. It's a brilliant idea, and since I'm a fan of The Acting Company and I love the idea of repertory (two or more plays with the same cast) I jumped at the chance to see both plays in quick succession - Friday night Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, followed by a Saturday matinee of Hamlet. The former is absolutely hilarious and wildly entertaining, and it gave me a double pleasure in viewing the latter - the great drama and well-known language of Hamlet as well as the "secret" knowledge of what may be going on behind the scenes with poor Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Hamlet

the fight scene in Hamlet

I'm sure you're all familiar with the tale of the Danish prince whose kingly father was murdered by his uncle Claudius, who then married his mother. It's no wonder he's in a bit of a funk. And that's putting it mildly; basically the play chronicles his descent into madness (or is it sanity?). Hamlet is visited by his father's ghost, who tells him that his death is no accident, so Hamlet plots to kill his uncle/father/ king with the help of his friends and a troupe of players. Let's just say it doesn't go well. It really is a beautiful play, full of drama with a bit of humor as well, with well-drawn complex characters. It's such an important and popular play that many of its lines have worked their way into our pop culture lexicon, including "the play's the thing," "the lady doth protest too much, methinks," "neither a borrower nor a lender be," "to thine own self be true," "brevity is the soul of wit," and my favorite, "the rest is silence." This is a great production, dynamic and compelling with a nice balance of light humorous moments and intense drama. And what a cast! I'll talk about them a bit later.

Hamlet chats with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
These two minor characters appear only briefly in Hamlet. They're old friends of Hamlet that his mother and uncle send for to help him out of his funk. Basically they're used, both by Shakespeare as a way to move the plot forward, and by Claudius to get to Hamlet and then send him away to England, which is the end of them. Stoppard's reimagining of the story sees them mostly sitting around waiting for their interactions with the world of Hamlet. They have many conversations about topics like death, fate, memory, and probability (the play opens with a long scene of flipping coins, which improbably land on heads 90 times in a row), and play silly games like questions (quickly hurling questions at each other until someone breaks and makes a statement). The main action of Hamlet occasionally interrupts their conversation, as they run into the troupe of players, receive their instructions from Claudius, and talk to Hamlet - a scene that's fast-forwarded as the actors mime words and move quickly while a garbled track of sped-up talking plays. We even see Hamlet's famous "to be or not to be" speech, but we don't hear it as the focus is on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They seem to exist only within the world of the play; they have difficulty remembering their life before and seem to know that this is the end for them. It's really clever writing by Mr. Stoppard to create this story and these characters in and around the world of one of the greatest plays ever written; he really does add to greatness.

The thrill of seeing these two plays back to back by the same company is that the same actors play the same characters in both plays, so it really does seem like you're see flip sides of the same coin. The star of the shows is John Skelley as Hamlet. An Acting Company alum who's also frequently seen at the Guthrie (see last summer's gorgeously intense Long Day's Journey Into Night, for example), John is one of my favorite actors to watch because he's such a natural and present actor. This is no exception; his Hamlet is charming and funny at one moment, and crazy intense the next. In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he's able to play it a little looser and more comedically; he has less to do but is able to have more fun with it, almost as if he's playing two versions of the same iconic character.

The other stars of the shows are the brilliant comedy team of Grant Fletcher Prewitt and Ian Gould as the slow-thinking Rosencrantz and the fast-talking Guildenstern. They work so well together and have such an easy and fun chemistry, perhaps because this is the end of their 6+ month tour. They're like Abbot and Costello, and somehow their interactions are made funnier by the fact that one is short and one is tall, one slow and one quick. Even their brief appearances in Hamlet are played to maximum comedic effect, or maybe it's just because I already knew and loved them. They even get to bring their comedy relationship to the roles of the gravediggers in Hamlet. I was originally hoping to see Hamlet first followed by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but I'm glad I saw Rosencrantz and Guildenstern first because it allowed me to seek for and find the comedic moments from that play in the more serious one.

The three leads are well supported by a great cast, including Andy Nogasky as Polonius (quite the comedian himself in both plays), Angela Janas as the sweet Ophelia driven to madness, and Patrick Lane and Jacqueline Correa as the king and queen. I find it interesting that each show has a different director (John Rando for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and The Acting Company's Artistic Director Ian Belknap for Hamlet), because there is some overlap of scenes. Obviously they worked together closely; sometimes scenes are played out very similarly in both shows, sometimes the same action but with a different tone, and sometimes quite differently. The technical personnel is the same as both shows play on the same set, comprised of classical arches and stairs (designed by Neil Patel), with the same gorgeous costumes by Candice Donnelly.

Sadly, The Acting Company is only in town for two weeks with these two great shows, through May 4. If you like classic Shakespeare, go see this fine production of Hamlet. If you like clever and fast comedy, go see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Or do yourself a favor and see both on the same day or back-to-back days for a deeper appreciation of both plays.