We’ve seen our share of canines onstage, but few can compete with Crab, a cheeky mutt who makes off with “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” Crab gleefully attacks a ball purposefully left on someone’s crotch. A little overexcited, he lets out a crazy bark for no reason, then slinks away, muttering “I don’t know” under his breath.
His only prop a black snout pasted on his own nose, Zachary Fine, standing upright, captures a dog’s body language, moods and expressions. And he’s just as good in his human role as Valentine, one of the title’s gentlemen.
This playful approach is par for the course for the Fiasco company, whose bare-bones productions rely on imagination rather than big budgets, and often cast actors in multiple roles.
Hot on the heels of its hit revival of “Into the Woods” for the Roundabout, the troupe delivers an utterly charming production of “Gentlemen” at Theatre for a New Audience.
The comedy’s main claim to fame is that it’s widely assumed to be Shakespeare’s first play. Quality-wise, though, it’s not that great.
Yet that seems to have inspired rather than deterred co-directors Jessie Austrian and Ben Steinfeld. They started by trimming the fat, cutting supporting characters so the show zips along at just over two hours.
More importantly, they managed to tone down the play’s unsavory side. After all, a major plot point involves the title’s other gentleman, Proteus (Noah Brody), dumping his girlfriend, Julia (director Austrian), for Sylvia (Emily Young). There’s also some rapey business, par for the course if you were an Elizabethan dude who really wanted him some woman.
But the show treads lightly. Tellingly, the actors wear loose, contemporary clothing in pastels and earth tones, and every so often they pick up instruments to perform gentle tunes.
And while uneven acting is Fiasco’s Achilles’ heel, this is less of an issue here. Coming across as smitten goofballs out of a Julia Roberts rom-com, Brody and Fine are well-matched with the piquant Austrian and Young. Andy Grotelueschen and Paul L. Coffey pinch-hit in delectable supporting parts — the first is especially good as Crab’s loving master.
Too many mediocre productions give the Bard a bad name. This accessible, fun “Gentlemen” makes him feel like one of our own.