|
Regional Reviews: Minneapolis/St. Paul The Count of Monte Cristo and Minnesota Centennial Showboat Players The Count of Monte Cristo
As always, the company highlights the talents of University of Minnesota students, who make up the cast and crew of the production. Yet, apart from the lack of any older performers, you don't notice it on stage. The company features plenty of skilled actors, singers and dancers—ones that showcase the excellent education they've received in school. The script (by Charles Fechter and then adapted for the Showboat by Robert Moulton) follows the familiar arc of the story—young couple separated by a nefarious plan; man imprisoned unjustly for 18 years before he makes his escape and plots to get his life back—truncates the action, but keeps the heart of the material intact. Still, I wanted some of the scenes to move along. A lot of time is spent laying out the rather complex plot, but those moments tend to drag the action down. It isn't until the end of act one, when hero Edmond Dantes makes his escape from his prison, that the show starts to fly. The company, under the direction of Peter Moore, does fine work throughout and draws the audience into the characters much more than your typical melodrama. And the traditional olios—presented between each scene of the main play—are a delight. Directed by local legend Vern Sutton, the moments are packed with plenty of wit, from a trio of lightning bugs singing about love (complete with blinking lights sewn into their costumes) to a jolly tribute to Minnesota's Scandinavian heritage (it is, after all, the state's sesquicentennial). The Count of Monte Cristo runs through August 23 at the Minnesota Centennial Showboat, docked in St. Paul. For tickets and more information, call 651-227-1100 or visit showboat.umn.edu. Photo: Justin Christy
I actually witnessed how Jeune Lune worked from the inside before I even saw a show by the company. Back in 1993, while still a very green reporter, I participated in an arts criticism workshop at the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University. The program was in conjunction with a Jeune Lune residency at the central Minnesota colleges, where they worked with the theater department on an adaptation of Emile Zola's Germinal. It was invigorating to watch artists so immersed in the act of creation, as they worked through all aspects of the show—from acting choices to lighting design to staging at the college's unusual double-sided auditorium—to bring Zola's dense and heartbreaking work to life on the stage. Though I didn't live in the Twin Cities over the next decade, I would always try to catch Jeune Lune's work—at their signature warehouse district space in downtown Minneapolis—whenever I ventured home. Over the years, I saw shows of varying qualities, but never one that didn't take my breath away at one point or another. Jeune Lune may be gone, but the artists are still here. Artistic Director Dominique Serrand already is making noise about new ventures and creations, which I'm sure will have a similar mad energy, innovation and insight that Jeune Lune did. Still there was something singularly magical about the company—a magic that finally has gone dark.
|
