Theatre in Review: Double Falsehood (Classic Stage Company)

	Hayley Treider, Clayton Apgar. Photo: Joan Marcus

The difficult thing about Double Falsehood is that the play is nowhere near as interesting as its rather squirrelly provenance. To wit: William Shakespeare wrote a number of plays in collaboration with John Fletcher. One of them, Cardenio, is presumed to be lost. However, in 1727, a character named Lewis Theobald produced Double Falsehood, which, he claimed, was an adaptation of Cardenio. How he was able to get his hands on Cardenio in order to adapt it isn't entirely clear; at any rate, he ran afoul of Alexander Pope, who had just published an edition of Shakespeare. This devolved into one of those entertaining literary feuds of the period, climaxing in Pope publishing his epic satiric poem The Dunciad, in which Theobald was portrayed king of the dunces.

All of which left begging the question: Is Double Falsehood in any way the work of Shakespeare? Until recently, scholars thought not, but the play recently made its way into the latest edition of the Arden Shakespeare, based, apparently on computer textual analysis that suggests the presence of the playwright's hand.

As far as I'm concerned, you need a computer to find any evidence of the Bard in this rather lame effort, which is distinguished only by its rattletrap plot and uninspiring language. In fact, the only Shakespearean thing about it -- and this is not a compliment -- is the way the rickety narrative resembles such arbitrarily assembled works as Cymbeline and Pericles. There's a pair of lovers, Julio and Leonora, for whom nothing goes right, and Henriquez, a villain, who lays waste to the female portion of the cast, raping the innocent Violante and then getting himself engaged to Leonora. The latter tries to kill herself, driving Julio out into the wilderness, where he carries on like a madman, much in the manner of Timon of Athens. Of course, Leonora isn't dead, and everybody ends up in one of those recognition scenes, where Henriquez's schemes are exposed and the moral order is more or less restored.

We put up with ridiculous story lines like this in Shakespeare because our attention is diverted by the magnificent words and the penetrating psychological insights. Double Falsehood has neither; instead, it appears to have been constructed out of a Build Your Own Jacobean Revenge Drama Kit. The only real way of amusing yourself is by counting all the devices that are used more effectively in other Shakespeare plays. The cast, mostly fresh faces plus the great Philip Goodwin and Jon DeVries, opts to play the text line by line, emotion by emotion. This approach yields little in the way of clarity; then again, it's hard to see what else they could have done. At least Brian Kulick's staging maintains a headlong pace, getting us in and out in a little over two hours.

The production design, by Oana Botez-Ban, consists almost entirely of Oriental rugs, scattered at first on the deck and later seen displayed on the upstage wall. It might seem under-designed but for the subtle beauty of Brian H. Scott's lighting, which does as much to compel one's interest in the action as anything in the script. Botez-Ban's costumes dress the men in contemporary narrow-cut suits with small lapels, while the women's clothes favor a '30s silhouette. I have no idea why this is so, but it doesn't irritate or distract. Christian Frederickson's sound design focuses on his ravishing incidental music, which consists of otherworldly bell tones that do much to suggest that what we're seeing is a kind of fable.

Of course, all sorts of people -- scholars, hard-core theatre fans, and Shakespeare completists -- will be drawn to this production, and, in truth, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. But best to attend with your eyes wide open, fully aware of what you're getting into. With Double Falsehood Once again, Classic Stage has attacked an unusual text with vigor, but this time, the play is no classic.--David Barbour