Ah,
the Shakespeare Wars. Did Shakespeare co-write The
Two Noble Kinsmen? What parts did he write? It is generally accepted now
that Shakespeare and John Fletcher collaborated on this play, as they did on Henry
VIII.
Fletcher
was Shakespeare’s successor at The Kings Men after Shakespeare retired, and it
appeared he was groomed for the job. The two collaborations (plus a third that
is lost) are the last works we have from Shakespeare. For some reason, my
Complete Shakespeare contains Henry VIII, but not The Two Noble
Kinsmen.
Because
of Covid-19, theaters are closed here in California, and the Utah Shakespeare
Festival is cancelled. Thus, I doubt I am going to have many chances to see
live theater in the near future. We have been getting by with video sources,
even though they are not the same. I didn’t review it, but Phantom of the
Opera was on YouTube for a weekend, and the kids and wife watched By
Jeeves one night.
But
best of all at this point, The Globe in London is releasing filmed performances
of various plays, including this one.
The
plot of The Two Noble Kinsmen is taken from “The Knight’s Tale” in
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Chaucer borrowed most of the story from
Boccacio.There are references to two prior stage adaptations of the story in
various writings, but the originals of those have been lost. Thus, Shakespeare
and Fletcher’s version is the first that survives.
There
are a few changes from the original. A framing story is added to explain the
battled which sets the plot in motion. The prison escape is different. But
other than that, it basically follows Chaucer’s tale.
The
play opens with three queens presenting a petition to Theseus and Hippolyta,
rulers of Athens. The cruel Creon has dishonored the corpses of their dead
husbands, and refused them burial. (Yes, this does appear to be a borrowing
from Sophocles. No, Theseus and Creon do not appear in the same story in Greek
Mythology - this was Boccacio’s invention.) Theseus agrees to battle against
Creon, and wins.
Fighting
on Creon’s side are two aristocratic cousins, Palamon and Arcite. They both
loathe Creon’s cruelty, but feel duty bound to fight for their home city.
Injured in the battle, they are captured and imprisoned by the Athenians. While
in prison, they pledge eternal friendship, and are practically kissing on each
other, when they spot Emila, Hippolyta’s sister, walking in the garden. They
are so smitten with her that they fight over who has the right to woo her,
coming to blows.
Arcite
is released from prison, but banished, after a relative intervenes. Palamon
later escapes with the help of the jailer’s daughter, who has fallen in love
with him. (This is a chance from Chaucer - in the original, Palamon poisons the
jailer.) Arcite disguises himself and gets a job as bodyguard for Emilia. He
finds Palamon half-starved in the forest and brings him food and drink - and
weapons so that they can eventually fight each other over Emilia. Meanwhile,
the jailer’s daughter goes mad over her unrequited love and runs away,
eventually taking up with a dance troupe.
Arcite
and Palamon are discovered, and about to be executed, but Emilia and Hippolyta
intervene. Theseus agrees to have the two of them fight each other. The winner
gets the hand of Emilia, and the loser gets executed. Emilia is horrified (and
not too happy about her lack of say in the matter, but...she’s just a woman in
Ancient Greece, so…) but Arcite and Palamon are all in - this will solve their
dispute, after all.
Before
the match, Arcite, Palamon, and Emilia all pray to their gods. Arcite asks Mars
to give him victory in the battle. Palamon asks Venus to give him the hand of
Emilia. And Emilia ask Diana to let her marry the one who loves her the
best.
In
the event, all three prayers are answered. Arcite wins the battle, but is
thrown from his horse afterward and mortally wounded. As he dies, he reconciles
with Palamon and gives his blessing to marry Emelia.
As
Theseus says at the end:
Never
Fortune
Did
pay a subtler game. The conquered triumphs;
The
victor has the loss; yet in the passage
The
gods have been most equal.
I
wouldn’t say that this play is one of Shakespeare’s finest. The language is
good (and Shakespeare’s portions flow really well), but it doesn’t reach the
heights like in his best plays. The plot is interesting, of course, but it also
bears some resemblance to The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Like that
play, there are some interesting lines that hint at a non-heterosexual
orientation of the characters. While the homoerotic element doesn’t
last as long as in Two Gentlemen, the two lead men seem to have a closer
than normal bond.
Even
more interesting, though, is Emilia, who seems pretty reluctant to marry. Early
on, she mentions a childhood friend who died young, and says she can never love
a man like she did Flavina.
“The
true love 'tween maid and maid may be
More
than in sex dividual.”
Her
lady-in-waiting, who also seems...close to her, notes that she is breathing
hard. Later, while praying to Diana (not Venus, interestingly - she picks the
virgin goddess), she says:
This
is my last
Of
vestal office. I am bride-habited
But
maiden-hearted.
Shakespeare
is full of stuff like this: gender bending, complicated erotic bonds, and an
acknowledgement that marriage (in the traditional, patriarchal sense) was an
economic and political arrangement superimposed on a tangle of romantic and
erotic attachments and preferences.
While
Emilia is reluctant to marry, this isn’t the normal way women in Shakespeare
approach love and sex. Usually, the women are far from reluctant. Indeed, they
are often more sexually aggressive than the men. The Jailer’s Daughter (never
named) is in this category, relentlessly pursuing Palamon as she goes
mad.
She
gets a happy ending, though. Her wooer (a young man who is never named) is
enlisted to pretend to be Palamon and court her. His kindness and love (and
perhaps sex - it is at least implied) wins her over and restores her sanity. By
the end, it is clear that she and he will be happily married.
The
production itself was outstanding. It was set more or less in Medieval England,
which made sense given the presence of a Morris Dance troupe. The music for the
dance scenes (and throughout the play) was composed by Eliza Carthy, and
performed by a small ensemble live on stage. (Depending on the piece, there
were trombone, guitar, banjo, violin, and various percussion instruments. I
heartily approve of this.)
As
Arcite and Palamon, Bryan Dick and Paul Stocker, respectively, were excellent.
Ellora Torchia as Emilia was also outstanding - and believably beautiful enough
to inspire two guys to lose their heads. The rest of the cast was great -
unsurprisingly solid throughout.
The
show was stolen, however, by Francesca Mills as the jailer’s daughter. She is a
Little Person with a long list of credits for acting, singing, and dancing
roles. She did all three in this, and was just electric. I mean, when she was
on stage, you could not keep your eyes off of her. Both in her sane and insane
moods, she captured the character perfectly.
This
play will be streaming on YouTube through May 17, if you want to watch it.
(Next up is A Winter’s Tale, which I plan to watch as well.) For more
information, here is the website.
Grand Spectacle
Arcite and Palamon
Emilia
***
Over the years, I have seen
27 of the (arguably) 39 plays written by Shakespeare. I am not counting this
one as “live,” but it is a wobbler - the video is of a live stage performance,
not a movie adaptation. My wife has seen even more than I have, because of her
annual trip to the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Anyway, here are the ones I have
reviewed on this blog:
Hamlet* (Benedict
Cumberbatch)
Hamlet* (Bakersfield
College 2017)
Measure for Measure*
(BC 2018)
Richard II (Old Globe San Diego 2017)*
* indicates the ones we
have seen with at least some of the kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment