Aug. 18, 2005

Sharper than a serpent's tooth!

by ELLIN BELTZ

Last YEAR AT THIS TIME, IT WAS MY GREAT PLEASURE TO experience Shakespeare at Benbow Lake for the first time, as a guest of one of the multitudinous volunteers who put on this annual shindig.

This year, the 23rd season of Shakespeare at Benbow Lake brings back the Festival Theatre Ensemble for three different plays during a two-week run. First up, the romantic comedy Two Gentleman of Verona, on Thursday, August 18, Saturday, August 20, and Friday, August 26. The play is one of the funniest in the Folio if you can suspend all disbelief at the plot. In that way it presages the theater of the absurd, which was suppos Photo from King Lear at Shakespeare at Benbow edly "invented" in the 1950s.

Bring the kids to either of two performances of That Rascal Scapin, a non-Shakespeare comedy show, on Sunday, August 21, and Thursday, August 25. Their children's show last year was rated a winner by the youngsters I know who saw it.

[PHOTO AT RIGHT: BRUCE W. DE LES DERNIER AS LEAR AND CHRISTINE SLIVA AS HIS FOOL IN KING LEAR . PHOTO BY MARY ELLEN KASCHUB.]

The other offering this year is ambitious and timely for our world at war. King Lear is considered one of the greatest tragedies in the English language. Don't let the five acts put you off; while it's one of the longest plays in number of lines, the speed of the action, the villainy and the politics will drag you along like a house on fire. This company has the gift of Shakespearean tongue, a wonderful interactive camaraderie, significant theatrical skills and a gem of a director, Bruce De Les Dernier, who plays the King in the current production. Come see his Lear, especially if you've never dared before, on Friday, August 19, or Saturday, August 27.

Unlike some of the Bard's other plays, this one is not based on actual figures from history -- there was no real King Lear. Instead, this classic tale is based on the age-long struggles for power between nobles, kings and nations. King Lear will make you reexamine every one of your personal relationships for weeks to come.

Wanting to retire, narcissistic King Lear gives away his power by dividing his kingdom between his daughters, Goneril and Regan, who claim to love him, while giving nothing to his youngest, Cordelia, who truly loves him. When Lear banishes Cordelia, she's quickly wed by the King of France, giving France an interest in the English crown.

The evil sisters' true natures eventually surface as they compete for the affections and allegiances of the kingdom's powerful nobles. The King begins to slide into madness as his belief system is challenged and his land spirals into cruelty, torture, war and anarchy.

Reconciliation and death end the drama, but not its messages of power won and lost for true and false causes; of wars begun due to misunderstandings and unable to be ended by truth; and of the human spirit, essentially unending and unchanged from the time the play was written until today.

Catered dinners are offered from 6-7:30 p.m. before all shows, with excellent local entertainment before the 8 p.m. curtain time. For dinner reservations and tickets, or tickets alone, call 866-468-3399 toll-free Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. or order tickets online at their informative website: www.shakespearebenbow.com.

ELSEWHERE:

Humboldt Light Opera Company presents Beauty and the Beast, continuing on Friday, August 19, and Saturday, August 20, at 7:30 p.m. at Humboldt State University's Van Duzer Theatre in Arcata. Directed by Carol Ryder, more than 50 cast members bring to life the play, adapted from the Academy-Award winning Disney movie.

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