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Merger of genres is tough act for CVLT
(by Bob Abelman - January 21, 2010)
THEATER, BY BOB ABELMAN
Merger of genres is tough act for CVLT
It's Sherlock meets Shylock in Chagrin Valley Little Theater's production of "The Maltese Bodkin." On stage in Chagrin Falls through Feb. 6, it is a Labradoodle of a play.
It is an odd yet intriguing merging of two opposites that neither God nor nature had ever intended to unite. Playwright David Belke has combined Shakespearian tragedies and film-noir crime dramas to create a comedic murder mystery.
In "The Maltese Bodkin," a hard-boiled, 1940s private eye named Birnam Wood and his quick-talking, tough-as-nails secretary, Charlotte, are inexplicably in 17th-century London attempting to solve the mysterious murder of Wood's partner. Falstaff, Mistress Quickly, Donalbain, Rozencrantz and Guildenstern serve as aides, snitches and sidekicks. The lineup of suspects includes Viola, Richard III, Iago, Mercutio and Catesby.
This is no parody, and it is no spoof. It is a piece of pastiche, which pays homage to other works by earnestly copying their style. It is very silly pastiche.
Subtle references to Shakespeare's better-known quotes are infused into Wood's tough-guy jargon, and modern-day sensibilities give rise to funny interpretations of the bard-flavored verbiage spoken by this assortment of literary characters. Even our hero's name is a Shakespearean in joke, as well as a clue to figuring out who hath done the deed most foul.
Yes, this is one strange and convoluted ride. However, it promises to be a good ride if all that is Elizabethan in Shakespeare's tragedies and all that is Sam Spadesque in film-noir crime dramas is recognized and embraced. It is the clash between the extreme opposites of these worlds that makes this play a potentially interesting production.
Despite some terrific acting by the CVLT's ensemble of players, neither director David Malinowski nor set designer Edmond Wolff provides the necessary production and performance juxtapositions to make this play succeed. The contrasts in these genres serve as mere window dressing when they should be a significant part of the storytelling.
The short, staccato sentences spoken by our no-nonsense noir hero in response to the rambling, flowery soliloquies of the pompous population of 17th-century denizens is a funny bit of business. Yet this is not played for laughs, as the playwright intended.
The play repeatedly jumps back and forth from Wood's modern office to various Shakespearean locations, creating a running gag of dueling domains as members of one world enter into the foreign world of the other. Yet no genre-specific lighting or genre-defining soundtracks are employed to establish a classic shadow-drenched, smoke-filled environment for our Humphrey Bogart equivalent or regal and well-appointed realms for our John Barrymore clones. The running gag trips and falls short.
These and other missed opportunities leave the audience with plenty of clever wordplay but not enough playing.
The performers do their best with this material and its staging. Bobby Thomas, as our hero, looks and sounds as if he just stepped out of 70-year-old celluloid. So too does his girl Friday, played by the charming Amy Pelleg. Fifteen different Shakespearean characters are portrayed by Dan Jacobsen, Kacey Durbin, Mark DePompei, Yvonne Pilzarczyk, Roger Atwell, Nate Earley and Rollin DeVere, who do so marvelously.
Unfortunately, this doubling and tripling of roles creates undue confusion in a murder mystery, as suspects and sidekicks share the same face. Wonderful period costuming by Craig Tucker helps distinguish one character from the next, but audience members will be scouring their programs for assistance nonetheless.
Combining Shakespearian tragedies and film-noir crime dramas is certainly an intriguing notion. Clearly, the play's the thing. But in this CVLT production of "The Maltese Bodkin," it don't amount to a hill of beans.
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