Theatre Review
Production: Alls Well That Ends Well
By: William Shakespeare
Director: Marti Maraden
Where: Stratford Shakespeare Festival Of Canada 2008
Run: June 19^th to August 23rd
Theatre: Festival Theatre 

 


Reviewed By: Kindah Mardam Bey (Ontario Correspondent - Canada) 

You have to love a play where the final destination of its story proclaims a happy ending within the title. We subject Shakespeare to high-art now, but his wheeling and dealing sensibilities knew that a play named All's Well That Ends Well would be a big seller. All's Well was considered one of the "problem plays" (Troilus And Cressida, and Measure For Measure being the other two), because of it's moral debate and what we might consider black comedy tone. All's Well, isn't the light and fluffy matter of Much Ado About Nothing, but it is not as brutally depressing as Macbeth either. The Stratford Shakespeare Festival has put on a fabulous rendition of the play this year placing it firmly in the Festival Theatre as a testament to the plays strength to hold the attention of an intrigued audience.

Dear, sweet Helena is a gentlewoman in the house of Rossillion, and pines for Bertram, who is the son of the household and off to Paris to be under the guardianship of the King. Helena's father, now deceased, was a well-renowned physician and has left her with the skill and medicines to cure the ailing King of France from fistula. In exchange for the King's return to health, he must promise her she can marry the man of her choosing. When the King of France returns to his former youthful good health, he seeks to fulfill his end of the bargain. Helena requests Bertram, who is offended at the idea because of Helena's lowly class-status compared to his and because it is not a wife of his choosing. The King insists on the marriage although Helena, when seeing Bertram's desire not to marry her, relinquishes any claim to him. In a desperate case of rebellion, Bertram flees to the war taking place in Italy, and refuses to ever "bed" his newly acquired wife. Doesn't this sound like it will all end well?! Not really. It does though, as Bertram learns the lessons of maturity, and the value of a good woman, along the way.  

I love this play for its deeply squeamish scene when Bertram refuses Helena, where she is crushed by the news, and yet the King demands recompense to Helena for her miraculous cure. Brian Dennehy was the King in this production and Helena (Daniela Vlaskalic) and Bertram (Jeff Lillico) played this scene to perfection; the whole audience felt deliciously uncomfortable as all parties in the play were awkwardly dissatisfied!

The stage was beautiful, and possibly one of the best this season, as a simple backdrop of sepia-stained tempestuous clouds hung at the back, a few off-white wrought iron pillars dressed the foreground, and some opaque panels were all offset by a general soft-brown hue that covered the stage. It sounds a little depressing, but it was incredibly mood-evoking. The costumes were equally dynamic, as the play was staged in Victorian costume, but more akin to the Sherlock Holmes fashion focus then a Jane Austen perspective. Many of the costumes were varying degrees and layers of black, and men were in top hats, when they weren't in rich-red soldier uniforms. All the costumes gave the feel of a Regency British Empire. The costumes absolutely suited the storyline, which gave the costumes an almost effortless ease, as if the play had been wrote for the 1800s instead of over two-hundred years previous.

The cast had an overall harmony between each other and a relaxed appeal within their allocated parts. Daniela Vlaskalic as Helena seemed unpolished, but the rest of the cast really put in strong performances. Dennehy was a great King, but he is still at his best in plays set in the first half of the 1900s.Tom Rooney as Lavache, put in a much stronger performance then his Horatio in Hamlet this year. However, the stage was stole by Juan Chioran who was the part of Parolles, in all his puffed-up oration, a complete joke and delight to watch. Chioran did a splendid job in easily the funniest torture scene I have ever witnessed! 

All's Well That End's Well was incredibly well directed by Marti Maraden, with attention and care to the character development, the plotline twists and most importantly, this intricate plays' tone. Truly, is one of the strongest plays of this years' season.