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Sure hand makes something of 'Nothing'By Roy C. Dicks RALEIGH - All right, I admit it. I was reluctant to attend Monday night's opening of Bare Theatre's "Much Ado About Nothing." Shakespeare is extremely difficult to pull off, even for seasoned professionals. So here was yet another startup theater, organized from young actors and technicians associated with local community and university theaters, taking on the highest of challenges for its first staged production. Prescription for disaster, right? Well, no, not if you are director Carmen-Maria Mandley. Miraculously, she has molded the 21 cast members, most in their teens and 20s, into a first-rate ensemble, brimming with fire and vitality. Minor blemishes are easily overlooked in light of the cast's precisely drawn characterizations, hair-trigger timing and, above all, understanding and communication of the text. Mandley mounts this popular work of sparring lovers, bumbling comedians and multiple deceptions on a bare stage with minimal props. The actors, male and female, are clad in white tops, suspenders and black pants. The whole production reflects Bare Theatre's mission: the art of storytelling with only a room, an audience, the actors and a script. Staged in a downtown Raleigh building that used to be a tire factory and is now a photography studio and gallery, the production has an adventurous and free-spirited appeal. Against a backdrop of industrial fans, exposed roof timbers and painted brick walls, Mandley uses the entire space to play out the comedy. Actors hide behind audience members, crawl along the aisles and run around the room, often engaging spectators in their antics. Mandley has wide experience directing Shakespeare and it shows. She is bold enough to add her own clever touches, such as dousing a heated character (and the front row) with water, adding a character to a scene to repeat and enunciate the main character's lisped lines, and having an actor play her own tombstone. She is not afraid to play up the sexuality of the characters and the attractiveness of the cast, even changing one part from male to female to add a romantic relationship between two conspirators. Most important, Mandley and associate director/vocal coach Ben Smith have instilled a unified vision and energy in their actors. It is a joy to watch even those in the smaller parts. Seth Blum humorously differentiates his various servants and messengers, Edward Freeman is an island of calm and consolation as the Friar, and Jack Prather is the height of obsequiousness as the malaproping Dogberry. There are a number of major male characters who move the plot along, all strongly acted here. Best of all, the actors playing the lead parts of Claudio and Benedict are well up to their tasks. Jamie O'Connor belies his youthful appearance, investing Claudio with fervor and moonstruck romanticism. Micah Cover simply shines as Benedict, consummately shading his delivery between bravado and timidity, from witty repartee to wounded pride, all with complete control and superb diction. If the female leads are less impressive, they nonetheless contribute their fair share. Kat Randle is winning as Hero but is often difficult to understand. Elizabeth Carroll's Beatrice is fiercely independent and forthright, although one wishes for more interpretive range and variation in delivery. There are a few problems. Too many passages are relentlessly shouted. The highly active staging often covers important lines with noise. The wide-ranging acting areas make for some strain in seeing it all. Nevertheless, this is a major success, all the more amazing coming from a fledgling company. Bare Theatre has set a high standard for future productions, one they appear likely to sustain. |