Review: A Stunning RED VELVET at Gamut Theatre

Sometimes a play is just so good that it's worth writing home about. Kenneth Branagh felt that way about RED VELVET by Lolita Chakrabarti, so much so that, after seeing the original production, he's currently staging it again in London's West End. In Central Pennsylvania, last year, the Fulton's production of VENUS IN FUR was an immediate obvious contender for Best Play for Broadway World awards, and this year, the visually stunning Gamut Theatre production of RED VELVET is equally so - if you don't trust Kenneth Branagh's opinion, then catch it yourself.

To a modern audience, mention Shakespeare's OTHELLO and ask who's played him successfully. Depending on their age, people will single out Paul Robeson, James Earl Jones, or Laurence Fishburne. The earliest interpretations of the play, dating back to the 1600s, presumed that Othello was a black-skinned African, and illustrations of the time make that plain; it really wasn't until the early 1800s, thanks to noted English Shakespearian actor Edmund Kean's performance, that it was enshrined in theatregoers' minds that the Moor might be a lighter-skinned North African. However, the concept was quickly embraced, especially since, though the English had no slaves in England, their prejudices about the black sugar plantation slaves in their Caribbean colonies rivaled Americans' about our black slaves. In short: you're going to put an African person on stage in London? It's clearly a joke, right?

Such was the attitude in the 1830s, when the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden was producing Kean's OTHELLO. Aldridge had in fact made a name for himself in Dublin and in the provinces, playing not only Othello but Macbeth and other white Shakespearian characters - but when he was called to fill in for Kean at Covent Garden, the concerns of the management, the prejudices of the actors, and the palpable horror of the London critics at seeing an actual person of African descent playing the Moor. This, incidentally, came despite private opinions by many that it was one of the great performances of the time. Aldridge returned to the provinces successfully, and also became greatly popular on the Continent - it was the opinion formers and tastemakers of London who couldn't bear one of the legendary Shakespearian actors of the 1800s. He received numerous medals, and a state funeral when he died in Poland; it was England that reeled from shock seeing an African on stage.

RED VELVET deals with the short interval of time during which Aldridge performed at Covent Garden. It's set in the theatre's green room, where actors and management would wait, talk, and wait again, bookended by Aldridge's performance as King Lear in Poland. Aldridge is played, powerfully, by Anthony Golden, who plays both the young, leonine Aldridge and the fading, deathly ill older Aldridge with sensitivity and a real feeling for Shakespearian dialogue. Balancing against his rock-solid performance is a cast combining Gamut veterans and newer performers. Gabriella DiCarli is charming and tough at the same time, playing the young Polish reporter who wants to interview Aldridge; not only is she starstruck at meeting him, but she and he prove to have a great deal in common, fighting for respect from a majority class that opposes their work, he on stage in England, her as a female journalist in a male-run industry.

Also notable is local veteran performer Sharia Benn, playing Connie, the Jamaican servant in the green room at Covent Garden, who silently dishes out tea, biscuits, and sherry for performers. Benn can convey more with a look than many performers can with an entire scene at their disposal - her irritation at being overlooked, and at some of the actors' opinions of the sugar plantation slaves, her delight at seeing a black performer come to the stage. But she's also dynamic in the second act, when she faces of with Aldridge to try to shield him from the foul words of racist London critics.

Michelle Kay Smith is delightful as noted actress Ellen Tree, who played Desdemona against Keen and Aldridge. She's taken with Aldridge, not only for his powerful acting technique but for personal qualities that force him to remind her that he's married, and she conveys both forms of interest in him vividly. Kean's son, Charles, who believes that he should play Othello, head the entire company, and marry Tree (which in fact he did do, but it took nine more years to get there) is more than a bit of a louse, as well as not yet the actor his father was (although in that same year, he finally proved to be a success in HAMLET) is played by Andrew Nyberg, who clearly relishes his role as not-quite-villain of the piece. There are no real villains in the show, just the tragedy of racism and those people who failed to understand their misplaced prejudices. If anyone mentioned within the show should be pilloried, it is undoubtedly the London critics unable to set aside their prejudices to understand Aldridge's power as an actor, but then, theatre critics are likely to be pilloried no matter what we do.

David Ramon Zayas plays theatre manager Pierre Laporte with real feeling, and with enough power to hold audience attention thoroughly in his scenes with Aldridge; the character is a former French leftist and old friend of Aldridge whose social conscience and desire to advance Aldridge's career are pitted against a theatre board horrified by Aldridge's reviews and a fear of damage to the theatre's reputation. It's a difficult role, but Zayas brings enormous depth to the part.

The new Gamut stage is a beautiful place for such a show, and Nyberg, who also did scenic design, developed a magnificent bi-level set for the production; the antique church fittings and molding used in constructing the new stage fit perfectly with the period set. Equally fine is the costuming by Paul Foltz, who not only constructed costumes but brought in ones previously used at the Metropolitan Opera. That's only fitting - more than one of Aldridge's children, with the stage in their blood, went on to become opera performers.

Director Clark Nicholson should be proud of this production. An excellent book, a terrifically solid cast, and sterling sets and costumes have generated what is certainly one of the best dramatic productions of the season in this region. Closing on the 7th, which is Super Bowl Sunday, but if you're a theatre lover, this is a far better ticket than that Panthers-Broncos business.

Visit GamutTheatre.org, or call 717-238-4111, though tickets should be available at the door.

Photo credit: Nora Peach

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