All’s Well That Ends Well
One of the pitfalls of a repertory company - even a superb one, like the Actors’ Shakespeare Project - is the temptation to cast within the ranks, regardless of role suitability. Color- and even gender-blind casting is all to the good. Age-blind casting, alas, requires too great a suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience. However valiant the effort, Jennie Israel is simply too mature to play the ever-faithful "maiden" Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well, as is, to a lesser degree, John Kuntz portraying her romantic counterpart, the cad Bertram. (Similarly, Marya Lowry skewed Twelfth Night as a superannuated countess this winter; company founder Benjamin Evett may very well do the same as next fall’s Hamlet). The only way we can tolerate the young fools in AWTEW - forgiving Helena her doormat tendencies, Bertram his callous opportunism - is if they’re in fact young.
Boston abounds in eager, talented, freshly minted conservatory grads: how about giving some of them a chance? One newcomer to the company, Ellen Adair, acquits herself quite well as Diana, the country lass who pretends to bed Bertram, only to ensnare him on Helena’s behalf. (And no, not all cats look alike in the dark: given the disparity in body types, this Lothario would have known at first grasp that he’d been baited and switched.)
If you can overlook the poor fit of the central pair (and it takes some doing), this is a production packed with delights - the foremost being Allyn Burrows as Parolles, Bertram’s blowhard sidekick. As he proved in ASC’s King Lear (as well as Speakeasy’s Five by Tenn), Burrows is every bit as gifted in tragicomic roles as he is in the nobler parts to which he’s physically suited. He knows how to hold the moment for optimum effect, and never hams it up. The same can’t be said for Kuntz in his secondary role, that of Clown. Kuntz appears to seize upon the jester’s scepter as a license to shriek and prance and get up in the audience’s face (often literally). He is funny, but ultimately his antics wear.
David Gullette is impressively magisterial as the King of France.(Should Alvin Epstein ever wish to retire from Lear, the company has a worthy replacement at the ready). Other company regulars crop up in multiple guises. Risher Reddick juggles four roles, all wittily. Paula Langton is adorably spirited in soldier’s drag, and as her younger (much taller) brother, Greg Steres reveals himself to be a skilled singer, a resonant bass.
Musical interludes of varying vintages and provenances (but all on the theme of untrue love) mark off the scenes, which - under director Evett’s deft hand - reel by with all due dispatch and an absolute minimum of scenery. With actors this good, who needs fancy sets?
At the Cambridge Family YMCA Theatre (866-811-4111; www.actorsshakespeareproject.org), 820 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, through May 14 (Thursday-Sunday 7:30 pm, Sunday 2:00 pm); $35-40; student, senior, and group discounts.
