Photo: Joey Miller.
Helena (Lydia Barnett-Mulligan) heals the King (Joey Shaw) in Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s production of ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL directed by Dan McCleary now running through December 20 at Dixon Gallery & Gardens. For ticket and more information: 759-0604, tnshakespeare.org.
I haven’t seen Tennessee Shakespeare Company‘s production of All’s Well That Ends Well yet, but can already tell you it’s a cause for celebration. Just as New Moon Theatre Company’s recent (and not especially good) production of Titus Andronicus was cause for celebration. Any time a local company digs a little deeper into Shakespeare’s rich canon to produce something Memphians haven’t had an opportunity to see in decades— if ever— I’m 100% on board.
All’s Well That Ends Well, which runs December 10-20 in Dixon Gallery & Gardens, will explore the play’s mysticism, and what it means when women undertake the classic, usually masculine, hero’s journey. This dark-edged comedy — sometimes described as a “problem play” due to formal irregularities — is inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron. It tells the story of Helena, the low-born charge of Spanish aristocrats with healing gifts inherited from her father. She sets out to marry a young nobleman named Bertram whose appetite for adventure includes an a taste for fighting wars and rampant virgin defilement. The clever, and gifted suitor follows him first to Paris, and later Italy in a play chock full of life-or-death bargains, bed tricks, and faked death.
Like the wittier and more frequently produced Much Ado About Nothing, All’s Well That Ends Well lays bare the similarities between love and war. The journey is fraught with trouble and tragedy, but the play ultimately lives up to its title.
TSC’s latest production is a neoclassical fantasy inspired by the artwork of American illustrator Maxfield Parrish, whose work is closely associated with A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
For tickets and production details, here’s your click.
