The Liar at FSU Rep

Last night we saw "The Liar" at the FSU Conservatory in the Asolo complex. I thought it fun and entertaining, Phil found it trite, predictable and a waste of his time.  I will give him this- the student performers were somewhat less than smooth in the iambic pentameter verse of the dialogue but it was funny and they were clearly having a good time which was infectious for most of the audience - many laughs and much applause for a company undertaking such a challenging project.  

From reviews of prior productions- "THE LIAR and its mischievous adapter, David Ives, want you to savor every meticulously groomed conceit, every stylishly turned-out couplet, every assiduously manicured joke…Ives is an inveterate jester, a trait that serves him well on an evening that is all jest." —Washington Post. "For Ives, one of America's better dramatic humorists, translating the fun of Pierre Corneille's 1643 French comedy was an act of respectful reinvention…The result is a scrubbed, vivacious script salted with hints of cheeky self-awareness." —DCTheatreScene.com. 

THE STORY: Paris, 1643. Dorante is a charming young man newly arrived in the capital, and he has but a single flaw: He cannot tell the truth. In quick succession he meets Cliton, a manservant who cannot tell a lie, and falls in love with Clarice, a charming young woman whom he unfortunately mistakes for her friend Lucrece. What our hero regrettably does not know is that Clarice is secretly engaged to his best friend Alcippe. Nor is he aware that his father is trying to get him married to Clarice, whom he thinks is Lucrece, who actually is in love with him. From all these misunderstandings and a series of breathtakingly intricate lies springs one of the Western world's greatest comedies, a sparkling urban romance as fresh as the day Pierre Corneille wrote it, brilliantly adapted for today by David Ives. (above from the website Dramatists Play Service)

The Liar (French: Le Menteur) is a farcical play by Pierre Corneille that was first performed in 1644.  Dorante, the eponymous quasi-villain of the play, meets two women in the Tuileries in Paris, whose names are Clarice and Lucrece. He impresses them with his claim to have returned recently from the wars in Germany and boasts of the vital role he played. After they leave, he decides to court Clarice, mistakenly thinking her name to be that of her friend, Lucrece.  Géronte, Dorante's father, announces to his son that he has found a girl for him to marry (Clarice). Dorante, wrongly believing that the girl that he likes is Lucrece, concocts an outrageous lie that he is already married in order to avoid having to marry Clarice.  Meanwhile, Clarice is secretly engaged to Alceippe, who happens to be a childhood friend of Dorante. When Alceippe confronts Dorante in a duel, Dorante clarifies that he's not in love with Clarice, but Lucrece.  To build the plot, the authors throws in some hysterical side characters like Dorante's butler Cliton, and Clarice's and Lucrece's foxy lady maid, Isabelle who has a twin named Sabine.  After more fabrications and complications (Dorante revealing that his "wife" is pregnant), Géronte is infuriated to discover that he was lied to; Dorante eventually tells the truth and the plot is resolved happily. (wikipedia summary)

I had seen the School for Lies production a few years back and enjoyed it - I forgot Phil had still been in Chicago.  Farce is never his thing - he finds it annoying mostly although I don't exactly know why.... So take someone who is looking for a light and frothy evening - with the usual mistaken identities of the period and the usual happy ending of multiple marriages - and enjoy yourselves!

full employment

for student actors... that must be the reason- last night's production of As You Like It stage was littered with people... kind of like Little League - everyone got a part...LOL

let's start with the thumbnail review- I found it entertaining - if problematic and Phil found it a catastrophe/disaster/abomination (I believe he used all of the words)

a few flaws were mere annoyances - the drifting accent of one shepherd which moved across the south to some bizarre Cajun-like rendition of the phrases Shakespeare wrote for cadences that were so at variance with what we heard last night as to make it unrecognizable as Shakespeare in all but a few scenes and characters... The hip hop versions of some scenes were disconcerting, but nothing like the Robin Williams-esque riff that overtook the clown/jester character in a far too long and contrived monologue-

one who pulled off some of the beauty of Shakespeare's metered phrasing was the character of Rosalind while disguised as Ganymede. She was thoroughly entertaining.

however- the distractions frequently overtook the potential clarity of the rather (of course) complex story line... throughout the entire evening people were climbing up and down on giant ribbons- while an interesting gymnastic feat, it was less than pertinent to the narrative or setting but for a few short scenes where the characters were to be up in trees in the forest...

of course- this is a student production and they have none of the commercial worries a theater troupe might have so can take chances and be avant-garde... nevertheless one would have hoped for a bit more finesse with the Bard's prose...

our Rosalind/Ganymede- the strongest of the troupe when it came to the cadences of Shakespearian meter-

the rest of the cast members- as I said the stage was littered with characters- not all of whom were essential to the tale and some good editing might have been a worthy endeavor...

so perhaps not the best evening of theater we have seen but the edgy production did bring plenty to like (or not like)  -