Our reviewers offer a mixed picture of Actors’ latest offering at Schiller Park.
| Swashbucklers Under the Stars
by Krista Threadgill For the last 25 years, the Actors’ Theatre Company has been presenting Shakespeare plays and many other dramatic classics in Schiller Park, tucked away in the middle of Columbus. This season, they face greater obstacles than ever: with economic decline, massive state budget cuts, and a general tightening of everyone’s belts, the company depends on the donations collected from the audience to continue to bring great theater to the area without charging admission. Luckily, financial woes don’t play a part in their production of The Three Musketeers by Ken Ludwig. In this play, we meet D’Artagnan (Ryan Hooks), an idealistic young man whose life-long dream is to become one of the king’s (Tom Patton) lauded musketeers. As he strikes out for Paris, he finds out that his younger sister Sabine (Jennifer Collins) plans to tag along with him. She’s supposed to be reporting to a convent school in Paris, but the spunky girl has plans of her own. D’Artagnan makes some powerful enemies—mostly through a series of misunderstandings—in the mysterious woman known only as Milady (Robin Christopherson) and Cardinal Richelieu (Bill Fulk). He also makes some powerful friends in a trio of Musketeers named Athos (Mark Mann), Porthos (Zach Hartley) and Aramis (Aaron Deuschle) who take the young farmboy under their wing and teach him the ways of the world. In a short time, D’Artagnan comes to the rescue lady-in-waiting named Constance (Beth Josephson), runs a vital political errand for Queen Anne (Kristina Kopf) and Britain’s Buckingham (Cory Clawson), and finds himself positioned to try to save France from the evil Cardinal. Not to bad for an untested, untried kid from the sticks. The cast is simply magnificent. The action is riveting and almost nonstop. Hooks’s performance as D’Artagnan is affable and a pleasure to watch. Mann, Hartley, and Deuschle work well together as the close-knit title team. Christopherson is delightfully evil in her role as the plotting Milady, and her final battle with Collins’s Sabine is by far the most realistic fight of the production. Fulk’s Cardinal is pleasantly nasty, and I found myself looking forward to the spouts of venom he directed at his underlings (Stephen Hannah, Jason Spreicher, Ben Hackney and Nathan Jackson). The scene-stealer to watch in this production, though, is Collins. Her progression from flippant teenager to serious adventurer is definitely a sight to behold. John S. Kuhn directs the play, and his direction along with Angela Barch-Shamell’s fight choreography keep the pace moving and the audience riveted. Barch-Shamell also designed the lovely period costumes. Victor E. Shonk’s set design uses simple techniques to make different quadrants of the stage represent different areas of Paris, Britain, the royal ballroom and the French countryside as needed, and Jarod Wilson’s lighting design was perfectly balanced for the outdoor production. With so much in the news right now about how bad things are all over the world, it’s nice to take a couple of hours to escape from all of that and immerse ourselves in another time and place. So pack a picnic dinner (don’t forget the wine!), spread out a blanket on the grass, and partake in some good, old-fashioned swordplay, deception, romance and intrigue under the stars. The Actor’s Theatre production of The Three Musketeers is showing Thursdays through Sundays through June 28th at 8:00 p.m. in Schiller Park at 1069 Jaeger Street. There is usually plenty of parking around the park, but you’ll get the best seating if you come early. Lawn chairs are permitted in designated areas. There is no admission charge, but donations are much appreciated. The suggested donation is $5 per person, and credit cards are accepted at the information table. **** Krista Threadgill spent her childhood following her parents around the Actors Guild of Parkersburg. After that, she wiled away her summers at Jenny Wiley Amphitheater, and she has performed in two Neil Simon plays. She has an English degree from the Ohio State University. |
Three Musketeers Satisfies, Doesn’t Satiate
by Ali Liederman Standing as one of the most popular theatre companies in the Columbus area, Actors’ Theatre boasts a huge donor list and large crowds for seemingly every production it launches in the verdant and centrally located Schiller Park. The company stages popular and energetic plays with great production values and only requests donations at intermission, charging no formal admission fee. This production of Ken Ludwig’s The Three Musketeers does not stray from this successful formula, boasting a smart set (Victor Shonk) and has the added benefit of several bouts of stage combat (choreographed by Angela Barch-Shamell) scattered throughout the familiar plot. As such, most families, friends, and romantic couples should find the evening a light and enjoyable fare.
The cast includes some stand out performances, especially amongst the female performers. In particular, Jennifer Collins adds a terrific energy and buoyancy to her role of Sabine, tomboyish sister to the would-be musketeer, D’Artagnan (Ryan Hooks). In contrast to Collins’s likable tag-along, Robin Christopherson plays the dark villainess, Milady. A character often portrayed as nothing more than a Cruella De Vil archetype, Christopherson’s multilayered Milady allows a welcome peek into the roots of her character’s wickedness and vulnerability without seeming too pat or glib in her effort. Unfortunately, the other principal actors often seem content to play their characters in broad strokes, rarely expressing more than a cartoonish depth to their portrayals. For instance, Hooks makes his D’Artagnan’s need to impress the king (Tom Patton) clear enough; the boy wants to become a Musketeer. What exactly drives that need (to impress his father? to make money? to get away from home?) remains unexplored- or at least indecipherable to the audience. It comes across as simply youthful spirit, a simplistic and obvious choice. Similarly, Athos (Mark Mann), Porthos (Zach Hartley), and Aramis (Aaron Deuschle) become just what the title implies- three indistinguishable musketeers.
Although impressive in its accuracy and breadth, the production team as a whole paints with the same broad brush strokes. The missing guts of these characters may be marred, in part, by their costumes. To be sure, the costumes dress to impress- but they are so ornate and so… well… costumey… that they lack personality, seeming to support the idea of each character as caricature. Barch-Shamell’s fight choreography, too, could have used more thought and polish with less flourish and gimmickry. Yes, the battles help heighten the action and seemed to please the audience. But with so much simultaneous action spread across the stage, one has a difficult time knowing where to look- often missing what was meant to be the main battle in the scene. The choreography, too, sometimes seemed slow and laborious, as though the actors had not had enough time to practice perfecting the moves.
Fortunately, seasoned director John S. Kuhn adds some quirky and creative staging bits that keep the audience entertained and laughing throughout the evening. The crowd especially enjoyed the repeated gag involving moving offstage the ever-increasing mound of dead bodies. The smaller supporting roles, often the purveyor of this wry bits of stage business, shone brightly.
These sort of light-hearted moments help to keep the pace moving and go far to overcome some of the more disappointing aspects of this professional production. And, in truth, most summer-theatre-in-the-park audience members will not be bothered by the lack of depth in this (or any play) offered by Actors’ Theatre. The show does offer a pleasant evening. You may go, as the Musketeers are wont to say, demanding “satisfaction.” Just don’t expect to get more than simply that. ***** Ali Liederman has been an actor and director for over 15 years and currently teaches writing.
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