We don’t know for sure who wrote “Cardenio, or the Second Maiden’s Tragedy,” but whoever wrote this florid 17th Century drama, one thing is certain: Next Theatre, in rediscovering and restaging the play, has given it a rousing, revelatory and altogether exhilarating new production.
Think of it. An obscure, controversial text of 1611, believed by some scholars to have been the work of Shakespeare and John Fletcher, is picked up and given its second professional production in the United States by a small, venturesome company in Evanston, which then proceeds to turn it into a sensational presentation of ghost story/revenge drama/verse play.
It’s directed by Kate Buckley, Next’s incoming artistic director; it features in its cast Steve Pickering, the company’s outgoing artistic director. And they combine to create a surprising and exciting piece of theater.
It’s almost too good to be true. But it’s true, and it is very, very good.
Studded with many of the plot conventions of its time, “Cardenio” does indeed bear similarity to “Romeo and Juliet” and “Hamlet,” with a little “Othello” and “Macbeth” thrown in. But its poetry, though muscular and showing bursts of imaginative metaphor, does not have the richness or depth of Shakespeare’s writing.
Whatever, it’s a terrific story of pure love and irrational lust, embracing such juicy ingredients as greed, betrayal, murder, suicide and even necrophilia.
Buckley’s production, perfectly scaled for Next’s small stage, is set in designer Joseph P. Tilford’s square, classic courtyard. The action moves swiftly, its melodrama quickened by Charles Jolls’ striking lighting and heightened by Barry G. Funderburg’s inventive music and sound effects. (All of this comes together in a superbly designed and staged scene in the bowels of a tomb.)
Dressed in the severe black and white costumes of Kristine Knanishu, the youthful cast of 15 players speaks clearly and moves dynamically.
Pickering portrays the tortured tyrant obsessed with the beautiful woman (Michele Graff, beautiful indeed) who adores Govianus (Kevin Theis), the king he has overthrown. A secondary plot, its scenes alternating with those in the central story, concerns Anselmus (Nathan Vogt), Govianus’ brother-in-law, and his ill-fated attempt to test the virtue of his wife (Karen Raymore) by having his friend Volarius (Joseph Wycoff) try to seduce her.
It all ends with more bodies strewn on the stage than there are in the final act of “Hamlet.”
This play, close to four centuries old, is performed, designed and directed with such invention and conviction that it’s fresh, fiery and amazingly forceful.
It’s an event, and a most enlivening evening of theater.
———-
“Cardenio, or the Second Maiden’s Tragedy”
When: Through May 2
Where: Next Theatre, 927 Noyes St., Evanston
Call: 847-475-1875
