‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’
What is it that attracts man so strongly to revenge tales? Shakespeare set the scene with the ineffectual Hamlet, who wanted his uncle’s head for the murder of Hamlet’s father and ended up dead himself, in a court strewn with corpses.
Following the Elizabethans came the Jacobeans, pushing tales of the lurid and distasteful to even greater depths of depravity.
UCSD’s graduate theater students present Thomas Middleton’s bloody The Revenger’s Tragedy through February 20 at La Jolla Playhouse’s Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre. Playhouse artistic director and newly named Director in Residence at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) helms this production. (There is some dispute about the playwright; Cyril Tourneur is often mentioned, but Ashley assumes Middleton).
Lust, greed, ambition and murder run rampant in Italy – especially at court, where the duke (Hugh Medina) makes it a point to indulge his every sexual whim. One of his victims was the fiancée of Vindice (Johnny Gill), poisoned by the duke when she refused his advances.
Vindice vows revenge – and he’s not the only one in this group who wants to get back at the royal family. The duke’s sons and grandsons are jockeying for power and other women want revenge on these sexual predators. This is Hamlet writ big, except that Shakespeare’s tragic characters are replaced by a whole stage full of small-scale corrupt and venal ones.
Taking advantage of modern technology – and using an expansive stage four times bigger than normal – Ashley has used seven cameras and video to make a reality TV show of this bloody extravaganza. The set, which required about 5,000 man hours to build, is on two levels and sports a working hot tub, a functioning plastic urinal and two large screens that can be raised or lowered.
Ashley’s cast is large (15), plus 6 camera operators, and I’m sure both cast and crew of this bloody extravaganza are having a wonderful time with it. Bravo to Robert Tintoc, Stephen Siercks, Alyssa Ishii and Ian Wallace for their fine work on set, lighting, sound and digital design, and most especially to Sarah Cogan for her fabulous, stylized costumes.
This is such a fine (if not overwhelming) example of the use of technology in theater that the excellent acting almost seems secondary, but my favorites are Gill’s Vindice and Mark Christine’s Hippolito.
As for the plot, I must confess that my drowsiness quotient increases with body count, so for me it seemed a tad long and redundant.
UCSD’s production of The Revenger’s Tragedy plays through February 20, 2010 at La Jolla Playhouse’s Potiker Theatre. Shows Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. For tickets call (858) 534-4574 or visit www.theatre.ucsd.edu/season.
Johnny Gill as Vindice in UCSD's 'The Revenger's Tragedy'
