With incest, revenge, lovers' quarrels and murderous plotting galore, University Theatre heats its winter season with a tale of lust and evil in ''Tis Pity She's A Whore,' the 17th-century drama by English playwright John Ford.
Set in Renaissance-era Parma, Italy, ''Tis Pity' tells of the love affair between Giovanni (Josh Aaron McCabe) and his sister Annabella (Carrie A. Coon), who is being courted by many scheming suitors. There is the distinguished but vain Soranzo (Steve O'Connell), who views Annabella merely as a beautiful object to be conquered for his possession and the thick-headed soldier Grimaldi (Michael Duffy), who uses his powerful ties with the Roman clergy to excuse his murderous deeds. Bergetto (Kevin Albertson), the jovial but naive dunce nephew of Donado (Erik J. Hughes), provides the play with much-needed comic relief.
Behind the wooing of Annabella is a scheming group of characters who play a significant part in the play's tumultuous end. Her father Florio (played illustriously by the theatre department's head of acting, Tony Simotes) does his best to appease all parties while finding the most agreeable match to his daughter. Vasques (Paul Carbonell), Soranzo's personal servant, starts the play innocently enough but does so much double-crossing by the end to be easily labeled the play's villain. Hippolita, a mysterious female figure who turns out to be a jilted past lover of Soranzo's, looks for revenge and then Hippolita's presumedly-dead husband Richardetto (Pete Bissen) appears, posing as a doctor so that he may investigate his wife's indiscretions. With Annabella's nurse Putana (Joanna Buckner) cajoling her charge onward into the lustful arms of her brother, the story sets off on a calamitous path.
American Players Theater's Artistic Director David Frank offers an exceptionally professional production in his direction of the collegiate cast and crew. The staging is fluid and the limited stage space is used to its maximum potential.
Holly Blomquist's lighting design is superb, offering the actors well-placed spotlighting and using striking techniques that effortlessly transform the utilitarian set. Joanna Melville's costuming is appropriate if simplistic, and it never distracts from the actors.
While this is very much an ensemble piece with many strong performances, there are several standouts. Kevin Albertson steals the show as Bergetto with his excellent comedic timing and attention to detail in intonation of his lines. O'Connell catches attention as the arrogant Soranzo, playing across a spectrum of vanity, violence and sorrow with sublime grace, and Paul Carbonell is an especially conniving figure as Vasques, convincingly executing his deviousness.
But overall, ''Tis Pity' is dominated with the eloquence of its leading lady, Coon. With a masterful grasp of the language of the play, a solid understanding of her character and a sincere depth of emotion, Coon carries each scene with her own realism, challenging her co-stars to greater heights.
Frank has executed a production with very few flaws. His attention to detail within the production and acting can be felt through its polished final product. A gruesome, revengeful tragedy to be sure, ''Tis Pity She's A Whore' is still a climactic 17th-century morality story told with realism and success to a 21st-century audience.
