When a pair of criss-crossed lovers gets tangled up in a romantic farce of hidden agendas, cunning meddlers and a vengeful sibling, it's pure Shakespeare. Or is it?
The Very Ecstasy of Love, the latest production by the departments of theatre and stagecraft at Douglas College, borrows from a lost play of the Bard's and adapts the story to the West Coast.
It's onstage at the college's Laura C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre from March 16 to 24.
It stars Royal City residents Emma Hughes, Josh Martin and Chelsea Stamp-Vincent as Luisa, Alfred and Susana.
The play - which tells the story of a mismatched bride and groom who find their true loves at their own wedding reception - originated with American playwright Charles Mee, with collaborator Stephen Greenblatt. They wrote Cardenio, a play inspired by a play called Double Falsehood, which arose from a lost Shakespeare play called The History of Cardenio.
Mee and Greenblatt offered translations of Cardenio to different theatre companies around the world - with the condition that they not be performed straight up but that they be adapted to local cultural mores and conventions.
In this case, director Thrasso Petras and theatre department coordinator Allan Lysell took the story and set it on one of the Gulf Islands.
Petras calls it an experiment in "cultural mobility."
"For Charles Mee, a play is never a finite thing, locked into unyielding permanence," Petras explains in a press release. "His process makes the creative act constantly spin further afield."
Besides changing the location, Petras and Lysell also adapted the characters to conform to the student actors' capabilities and talents.
"It's a different sort of theatre experience," Petras says. "We get to say to the students, what do you want to bring to this role? As an actor in a traditional play, you're more of an interpreter. In this play you're more of a creator. There are some given circumstances, but if you don't like them, you can change them."
The Laura C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre is in Room 4100 at Douglas College's New Westminster campus, 700 Royal Ave.
Tickets are $8 to $12 and can be bought through the Massey Theatre box office at 604521-5050.
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