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Show 'Monarchs' showcase of talent Festival's matinee is for almost everyone wY. rfeW(;i By BRUCE LEE Record Editor This year, "The Monarchs of England: James I" provides something for the music buff, the drama buff, the dance buff, the history buff and, more importantly, im-portantly, for anyone only somewhat familiar with any such, if he will make a bit of an effort. Admittedly, the matinee, staged every Wednesday and Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Southern Utah State College Auditorium as part of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, is not for everyone; but Director Fred C. Adams, Choreographer Betsy Hamilton and Music Director David Gatts have made it closer to such than it has ever been before. In fact, Adams seems to be walking very well the fine line between intellectual and artistic snobbery and elitism that the festival is trying to avoid and the mass mediocrity that, for financial and - other reasons, is so easy to slip into. He has made "Monarchs" more of a total experience without forgetting that the production is the showcase for very talented musicians and dancers, not for the actors. ac-tors. He has changed the performance enough that the non-musician, if he tries can enjoy it; but the musician can also. It is not precious or overly intellectual; yet it is still very artistic and precise and beautiful. Such, of course, does not mean that the production is for everyone. If you have absolutely no interest in seventeenth century English music and do not want to gain any such interest, the production is not for you, and I hope that it would never be made so; but for anyone else, the 80-minute production can be a real joy. The set-up of the entire production makes it possible for patrons to enjoy music, dancing, is one of several interludes between musical performances per-formances in "The Monachs of England: James I." Parry B. Stewart (left) listens in as two gossips, played by Lindsay Frost (center) and Carolyn McCarthy discuss the latest bit of information. This history and just a bit of acting all in one performance; per-formance; yet, and this is important, the music has not lost its place as the main reason for "Monarchs." "The play is the thing" on six nights each week of Shakespearean performances, per-formances, with the dancers entertaining before hand; but "Monarchs" is lor the musicians. And the musicans simply shine. Under the direction of Gatts, the six musicians have put together a fine and varied performance on instruments in-struments we don't have the chance of hearing very often anymore: the recorder, the krum-mhorn, krum-mhorn, the cornetto, the lute and the harp among others. The narration and the acting between numbers becomes a nice interlude for the music, rather than the opposite which is true in so many productions. The musicians working with Gatts are Paul Stephen Anstall, assistant music director; Mary Ellen Anstall; Ed Matthew; Samuel P. Ponder; and Anne Sellitti. Standing in the balcony and watching the proceedings of the court below is James I, played extremely well by S. Merit Smith. His Scottish brogue is, as the common man says, almost impossible im-possible to understand at times, but it is precisely that (and it is understandable) un-derstandable) that makes the monarch charming, despite a tendency of the king to sometimes be didactic and overbearing, perhaps even ruthless. Also turning in an excellent performance is SUSC's own Parry B. Stewart as the common man, who wends his way in and out of the court and the streets of London, commenting on all he sees and explaining the workings of things for the audience: "I don't try to understand the way of kings. They're all a bit gassy." The highlight of the show is the Masque of Oberon, where all the creative talents of the musicians and the dancers come together Certainly, "Monarchs" is something to not be missed. It oilers, as the sailor, played by Kicardo Dominquez, says of the New World, "distant wonders of strange lands." |
