Escurial
This one-act about a mad king and his jester is played at such a fast tempo that the audience is overwhelmed with information
Reviewed by Barry Pineo, Fri., July 25, 2008
Escurial
Dougherty Arts Center, through July 26
Running time: 50 min
In this short one-act play by Michel de Ghelderode, produced by Gobotrick Theatre Company, a mad king and his jester clash over life in general and the queen in particular. The setting consists of an armchair, representing a throne, set atop a platform surrounded by steps. The king wears a crown and robes, and the jester wears the motley commonly associated with his foolish profession.
Outside of the way it ends, that's really all I can tell you about the production, because at almost no point could I figure out exactly what was going on. I'm somewhat uncertain as to the source of my confusion, but when I find myself mentally wandering as I watch live storytelling, I tend to look to the actors and, by extension, to the director. In this production, the director and one of the actors happen to be the same person. Robert Salas is credited with conceiving and directing the production and also plays the king as a raving lunatic, which is most likely appropriate given what happens at the end. But while he has an expansive physical presence and a fine speaking voice, Salas' tempo is out of control. The same can be said, to a lesser extent, for J.D. Carrera, who plays the jester. Carrera too has an effective presence and vocal instrument, but he, like Salas, rarely slows down vocally or comes to a stop. Such a quick overall tempo overwhelms the audience with information. We don't know what's important, because the actors aren't allowing us to hear what's important. Thus, the story doesn't engage us, and we drift away mentally, thinking about full cat boxes or uncut hedges or whatever common concerns happen to occupy our thoughts on any given day.
The performance of "Escurial" is prefaced by two short pieces. In one, "Interview With an Actor," an old English thespian is questioned concerning his experience playing various roles in the plays of William Shakespeare. As with "Escurial," Salas plays one part (the actor) and Carrera plays the other (the interviewer), and, not coincidentally, the piece is plagued by the same tempo problems as "Escurial," with yet another distraction: While Carrera's English accent is passable, Salas' simply does not work.
The one thing in the evening that does work is Jolyn Janis' monologue about the nature of illusion, performed between "Interview" and "Escurial." While Janis appeared somewhat nervous, her rumination on storytelling and the nature of the agreement between a storyteller and an audience, which used a magic trick as a setup, was charming and quite easy to follow because Janis varied her tempo, allowing us to hear what was really important, and occasionally paused to allow us to absorb what she had said. It may be that director Salas coached Janis in exactly that way. If so, he should have taken his own advice and carried it into his direction of "Escurial."
