Two Gentlemen of Verona

Here's the thing. Two Gents is believed by many to be Shakespeare's first play. As such it's fun to watch because you get to see a glimpse of many different themes (and even some lines) that show up in his later plays. However, as his earliest work it also comes with its problems. For example, it happens to have one of the most problematic endings ever crafted. As such, it is rarely performed due simply to the complexity of making the damn thing work. Nonetheless, it seems like every so often an obscure play will poke its head out and lots of people put it on. I've already seen this show performed twice, first at Ashland about 3 years ago, and last year at Central Washington University. Now, Seattle Shakes has taken up the helm to tackle this tumultuous comedy.

First, a quick recap of the story. Valentine and Proteus are bestest buds (and Seattle Shakes makes it clear they may be a little more than that) who live in Verona. Valentine is journeying to Milan to seek his fortune, while Proteus remains behind because he's in love with Julia. A couple weeks later Proteus' father decides Proteus should also travel and get a job, so he sends him to Milan where Valentine has gone. With a tearful departure, Proteus and Julia exchange rings. Upon arriving, Proteus finds Valentine in love with the Duke's amazingly beautiful daughter Silvia. So beautiful that Proteus falls in love with her on the spot, denounces Julia, and swears he will do whatever he can to get her for himself. Hearing from Valentine that he plans to ascend her chamber at night via corded ladder, Proteus reveals the plan to the Duke who has promised her to the ugly Sir Thurio. Valentine is caught, banished, and taken up by a group of bandits outside the city who are also banished gentlemen. Proteus woos Silvia who rejects his advances and constantly tells him to go back to Julia. Back in Verona, Julia decides she will seek Proteus, but since it's dangerous on the road she dresses as a boy. She arrives in Milan to find Proteus expressing his love and Silvia chiding him. Devastated, but still in love, Julia becomes Proteus' servant. Proteus then sends Julia (disguised as Sebastian) with the ring she gave him and tells her to give it to Silvia. She obeys reluctantly, though Silvia rejects the offer and gains favor with Julia. Distraught, Silvia joins with her old friend Sir Eglamour to escape into the forest to find Valentine. Not long after, the Duke discovers that she has fled and runs after her with Thurio and Proteus. Meanwhile the outlaws have captured Silvia, though Eglamour escaped, and are taking her to their leader (Valentine), but before they get to him Proteus shows up with Julia and saves her. Ungrateful, Silvia tries to run away but Proteus essentially tries to rape her before Valentine (who in the text watches for a while...a problem...but in this version showed up out of the blue) intervenes and denounces Proteus saying he'll never trust him again.

This is where things get tricky. Proteus takes about 4-5 lines saying "I'm sorry, and I feel really bad about this" before Valentine FORGIVES HIM. Not only that, but his love and trust for Proteus is so deep that he says everything he owns, INCLUDING SILVIA, he gives to Proteus. Astounded, Julia faints and then reveals herself to Proteus by giving him her ring instead of the ring he gave to her to give to Silvia. He repents to her and promises to marry her. Then the Duke and Thurio show up, having been captured as well, and Thurio lays his claim to Silvia. Valentine threatens his life, and Thurio quickly gives her up. Impressed by this display, the Duke says Valentine can have Silvia, and while he's at it he pardons the outlaws so that they may become gentlemen once more.

Oh, and there are some of the funniest speeches/scenes ever written with the foolish Launce and his dog Crab sprinkled throughout.

And that's the end. I hope you can see why this is problematic. After the attempted rape, Silvia literally doesn't say a word. She is just kind of tossed around as a possession. Julia, meanwhile, at least reveals herself but also is given no say in what happens after that. For some completely weird reason the boys completely control the end of the show and what happens to the girls. Also, Valentine's sudden change is VERY hard to account for character-wise. Even with the subtext (and not so much subtext in this production) that Proteus and Valentine are gay for each other, it still doesn't make much sense. So how did this production handle it?

First off, the play is set in very modern day. Everyone carries around a cellphone (and when they get texts or show photos to each other you can see them on the back screen), the boys wear surfer-like clothing, the girls are in short trendy dresses, the for-no-other-reason-than-to-be-funny almost russian sounding father of Proteus and his servant dress in a leisure suit and track suit respectively. Julia sulks around in pajamas with a copy of Twilight held close. The constantly high Launce wears giant headphones, a loose beanie-type hat, and carries a messenger bag filled with "Scooby snacks" (aka rows of doobies). While at some points the theme just feels too out of place, there are enough funny and quirky moments to excuse them.

A highlight of the show, as always, is the dog. This one is named Russ, and is a delightfully sad looking pitbull with hip dysplasia that makes his back legs not work so well. Of course he stole the show, but thankfully wasn't actually that distracting. It was more his entrances and exits that did it. One particularly good one was when Chris Ensweiler (Launce) was leading him offstage with a treat, which, when Russ saw it, he almost galloped towards it with mouth wide open. It was ADORABLE.

Anyways, where was I. The acting is an odd mash-up, with several wonderful performances (especially from both female leads, Valentine and Launce), some funny but out of place acting (the outlaws), and some just not really great acting (the Duke and Thurio). Seattle Shakes also happens to be one of the major recruiters of Cornish students, who usually have small or even non-speaking parts. However, in this show, Samie Detzer has a wonderfully strong showing as Lucetta, Julia's friend. Proteus unfortunately looked too much like Keanu Reeves and had such an odd posture that it was hard for me to focus on his actual acting, but he too delivered a solid performance.

As for the ending, Seattle Shakes gives us exactly what we all wanted. Instead of happily being passed around and going along with everything the boys are doing, the two are left in pure confusion as everyone else leaves. Realizing they aren't with them, Proteus and Valentine head back to see what happened, after which Julia and Silvia storm off with disgusted looks on their faces, leaving the boys to look confused themselves. It seemed fitting, and it worked well. Unfortunately, as I said before, even with the homosexual subtext (which after the beginning wasn't really touched on) the immediate forgiveness of Proteus still made little sense. Nonetheless it's obvious they did the best with what they were given.

All in all Seattle Shakes' production is easily the best that I've seen, and despite some odd moments and sub-par acting the play still shone and delivered a wonderful adaptation of a troublesome comedy.

Two Gentlemen of Verona gets an 8/10.