{"id":243712,"date":"2010-07-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-23T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/summers-best-production-not-a-bard-but-a-george\/"},"modified":"2010-07-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-23T07:00:00","slug":"summers-best-production-not-a-bard-but-a-george","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/summers-best-production-not-a-bard-but-a-george\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer\u2019s best production not a Bard but a George"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Patricia Morris Buckley
\nCr\u00edtico de Teatro SDUN<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\"Summer\u2019s<\/a>
Miles Anderson (center) as King George III with (l to r) Steven Marzolf, Shirine Babb, Ben Diskant and Emily Swallow. (Photos courtesy The Old Globe)<\/figcaption><\/figure>Is there anything worse than being the heir apparent? As the Prince of Wales says: \u201cTo be heir to the throne is not a position. It\u2019s a predicament.\u201d<\/p>\n

That quote is from \u201cThe Madness of George III,\u201d the third, final and best offering of this year\u2019s summer Shakespeare Festival at the Old Globe Theatre. But the quote is as timely today as it was then. That Prince of Wales had to wait until age 60 to inherit the throne, something Prince Charles, now a senior citizen, knows all too well. <\/p>\n

While this show is not one of the Bard\u2019s, it is a nice bookend to his King Lear as it deals with kings, legacies, madness and the many forms that greed for power can take. In fact, a bit of \u201cLear\u201d is read during the show. To put a touch more irony in it, one character criticizes the performance of another\u2019s reading of the king\u2019s role\u2014and the actor reading Lear actually plays Lear in the Globe\u2019s production.<\/p>\n

Most people know this show because of the 1994 Oscar-nominated film that starred Nigel Hawthorne and Helen Mirren (retitled \u201cThe Madness of King George\u201d). The play looks at George III\u2019s descent and recovery from madness at the end of his long reign. Today, the medical profession believed he suffered from a rare blood condition that led to this temporary madness and eventually to a permanent one at the end of his life.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s sad to watch as George, a rather stoic and jovial ruler, starts to lose his mind\u2014as he says, \u201cI\u2019m not going out of my mind, my mind is going out of me.\u201d Even scarier are the practically medieval medical minds that surround him, recommending such horrifying treatments as bloodletting, boils and purgatives. In the end, it\u2019s a very crude version of behavior modification that brings him back to himself.<\/p>\n

What makes this production so enjoyable is the crisp direction of Adrian Noble, who also directed \u201cLear\u201d (far less successfully). The action moves so quickly that one scene shifts to the next as the other clears the stage. Politics are handled with humor and speed, so they never slow the action. In the end, it\u2019s humanity\u2014and all that would prevent it from a fruitful existence\u2014that takes center stage. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting that the second act, where George regains his mental function, is even better than the first. That\u2019s due in great part to the actor in the role. This part requires great nuances and skill, both of which Miles Anderson (who plays no other role in the repertory of plays) shows in great abundance. We become so attached to the George we first meet that we can\u2019t wait for him to be restored.<\/p>\n

Other standout performances include Andrew Dahl as the pompous Prince of Wales, who cleverly walks the line between caricature and a man made to wait decades for his real life to begin. Jay Whittaker takes the quiet role of William Pitt the Younger and makes the audience feel his fear of his own madness. And Robert Foxworth (who also plays Lear) is the calm and authoritative voice of reason as the doctor who cures the king.<\/p>\n

Adding greatly to the play\u2019s success are two design elements. Ralph Funicello\u2019s curved wall of antiqued mirrors that are also doors allow for the show\u2019s fast pacing and work as almost every setting the playwright intends. Costume designer Deirdre Clancy produces the usual colonial-era garb, but a few she has given an extra punch (see for yourself). That restraint is what makes the design work so well.<\/p>\n

While many Shakespeare lovers will flock to see \u201cKing Lear\u201d and \u201cTaming of the Shrew,\u201d the best production of the summer isn\u2019t one by the Bard at all. But it\u2019s not to be missed. <\/p>\n

Through Sept. 24
\nOld Globe Theatre
\nTickets: $29-$62
\n23-GLOBE
\nwww.theoldglobe.org<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patricia Morris Buckley SDUN Theatre Critic Is there anything worse than being the heir apparent? As the Prince of Wales says: \u201cTo be heir to the throne is not a position. It\u2019s a predicament.\u201d That quote is from \u201cThe Madness of George III,\u201d the third, final and best offering of this year\u2019s summer Shakespeare […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1295,"featured_media":243713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Summer\u2019s best production not a Bard but a George","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}