Verona has small town feel in SCR’s ‘Gentlemen’

Tom Titus

Shakespeare’s plays travel well. Directors have transposed their

settings to any number of places on earth -- even, in one production

of “Comedy of Errors,” on another planet.

When “Two Gentlemen of Verona” opens at South Coast Repertory next

week, audiences will be treated to a very familiar setting --

small-town America in the 1950s, in which such TV shows as “Happy

Days” and “Leave It to Beaver” were situated.

“We like to call the design ‘retro-futuristic,’” said director

Mark Rucker, whose previous SCR productions of “Much Ado About

Nothing” and “The Taming of the Shrew” drew just about as much praise

for their “look” and their “feel” as their actual performance.

Rucker has directed some 20 productions of Shakespearean plays.

Not being as familiar with “Two Gentlemen” as with some of the Bard’s

other works, he said, “There is an opportunity to discover something

in the play that I haven’t seen elsewhere.”

For “Two Gentlemen,” Rucker has created a Verona resembling an

idealized small-town America for which the director was inspired by

advertisements of the 1950s. The play starts in a setting that is

very idealistic and slightly naive, “full of what I consider to be an

idyllic Americana sensibility,” he notes.

“Then, the characters journey to a place which is still iconic and

American, but is very sophisticated and exotic,” Rucker said. “We

envisioned Verona as a kind of ‘Everytown USA,’ and Milan as

futuristic ‘Metropolis.’”

“The ‘retro-futuristic’ world of this production has the

idealistic sensibility of those 1950s advertisements that imagined

the future,” Rucker said. “The idea is to convey a sense of dancer

and excitement. We need to see what it would be like for a young man

from small town USA to travel to a shiny, energetic, almost

larger-than-life Metropolis.”

The large cast, headed by Gregory Crane and Scott Soren, both

making their SCR debuts, includes three of the company’s founding

artists -- Don Took, Hal Landon Jr. and Martha McFarland -- along

with John David Keller, who’s only been around since 1973.

These SCR senior citizens promise to surprise and delight regular

theatergoers when they show up as a leather-clad, outlaw motorcycle

gang.

“I was immediately attracted to the youthfulness in the play, and

the fact that it is an early comedy of Shakespeare’s,” Rucker said.

“The more I read it, the more I see the seeds for some of

Shakespeare’s most memorable characters.

“[There’s] a little of Romeo in Valentine and a bit of Viola [of

“Twelfth Night”] in Julia,” he said.

Regarding the retro-futuristic nature of the setting, Rucker

observes, “I try to create new worlds with my productions. Those

worlds may have cultural icons that help us to relate to the play on

a personal level, but I try not to force the play into a particular

time and place.

“The worlds I create are fantastical. They are not real but,

hopefully, they illuminate what is at the heart of the play.”

* TOM TITUS’ reviews run Thursdays and Saturdays.