07.12.18

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THE PLAY’S THE THING
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21
22 PASADENA WEEKLY | 07.12.18
about as close to the true Shakespeare experience as
you can expect to get.”
“There’s not a lot of time for getting prepared” but
veteran actor Tom Killam says he’s “having a blast” in
his first SBTS season, despite logistical hurdles. Killam,
who worked with another Shakespeare company
in the past (and is known to Glendale Center Theatre
audiences as Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas
Carol”), portrays the trusty Old Shepherd as well as
First Lord in “Winter’s Tale.” He hadn’t expected an
opportunity to also tackle Falstaff — one of the classical
canon’s greatest mettle-testing roles — because
he lacks the physical girth. But like Tom Hanks,
who won raves for his recent turn as Falstaff in the
Shakespeare Center of LA’s production of “Henry IV,”
Killam is donning a fatsuit to embody the character,
one of Shakespeare’s most beloved, yet one that
poses discomfiting challenges in the #MeToo age.
“He’s unabashed,” he says, laughing. “He thinks
the world of himself and he’ll always try and take his
best shot at being an alpha male, although he’s really
just an alpha buffoon.” Killam’s foremost challenge as
an actor is keeping the portly knight “bigger than life
without going too far over into farcical, and having
him grounded somewhat” so audiences can engage
with him “as a guy” despite his many flaws.
Shakespeare’s Henry plays temper Falstaff’s
titanic self-regard with more depth. In contrast,
“Merry Wives” offers broad, crowd-pleasing comedy
that’s easily derided; enlightened it is not, as Falstaff
schemes to seduce and blackmail two wives and their
wealthy husbands. (“O powerful love,” he declaims in
Act Five, “that in some respects makes a beast a man,
in some other a man a beast.”) But Brown champions
“Wives”: “With the world being what it is and politics
being pretty extreme, I think this is a time for farce
and absurdity. Maybe even more so than satire or dark
comedies that really sting. We need some lighthearted
escape from the 24-hour news cycle.”
The infrequently produced “Winter’s Tale” is
altogether meatier — and trickier to bring to life, as it
slips between tragedy, comedy and magical realism,
with one character famously chased offstage by a
bear and another character’s statue descending from
a pedestal. Threads of contemporary relevance stitch
its intriguing story of family separations, reunions,
true friendship and love, set in motion by the jealousy
of King Leontes, a tyrant who unsettlingly resembles
the White House’s Narcissist in Chief. (Who, the
world can only hope, will soon also be humbled
enough to ask, “Does not the stone rebuke me for
being more stone than it?”) It’s called one of Shakespeare’s
“problem plays,” director Stephanie Coltrin
observes, because it’s hard to figure out how to give
its changeable elements “equal weight and equal
value, especially when you’re cutting it down [to fit
in] two hours.”
Written around 1610, when English explorers
were beginning to colonize the so-called New World,
“Winter’s Tale” is backdropped by the Renaissance
era’s excitement over emerging possibilities on a
planet newly discovered to be round. Taking note of
the play’s “very Greek” structure, Coltrin updated it to
Victorian times during the Greek Revival architectural
movement, when “women were finding their voice.
Shakespeare has written really powerful, beautiful
women in this play.” Costuming the women in
clothes that are corseted and staid, yet curve with a
soft Grecian drape, further underscores how they are
“finding power in their femininity instead of it being a
hindrance. …
“What I love about the play is that it came at a time
in Shakespeare’s life when he was exploring redemption
and grace,” Coltrin says. “When we all get older
we understand the need to look at that. To me, it’s
his most beautiful play. I love the language, I love the
story, but for me it’s about the power of the emotion
and the power of the reunion that happens at the end,
and that the reunion’s facilitated through the younger
people. We did a slight restructuring so there’s a big
entrance, and the audience can feel this big upsurge in
hope.” n
Shakespeare By the Sea presents “The Winter’s Tale” at Garfield
Park, 1000 Park Ave., South Pasadena, at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 19;
free admission. Info: (310) 217-7596. shakespearebythesea.org
PHOTO: PHOTO: Courtesy of Shakespeare by the Sea