The Knight of the Burning Pestle
Reviewed by Martίn Hernández
Independent Shakespeare Company
Through July 31
RECOMMENDED
As a revered fictitious theater company begins its latest opus — another hackneyed romance for the upper classes —the work gets hijacked by two longtime patrons. Insistent that the actors stage a parallel piece extolling the virtues of workers like themselves, the noisy couple convinces the unwilling actors to improvise an epic tale of derring-do. As characters crisscross plots and the proletarian pair add ever more bizarre scenes for the actors to perform, we know that summer is here and the time is right for free theater in the park, courtesy of this latest foray into lunacy by the plucky Independent Shakespeare Company.
Francis Beaumont, a Shakespeare contemporary, meant the piece as a parody of chivalric adventure plots popular during his time — think Marvel movies for a contemporary analogy — and a ribbing of his fellow playwrights who wrote them. It bombed in 1607 but adaptor/director Melissa Chalsma’s production is a boisterous romp, updating Beaumont’s 17th century references for a 21st century — and L.A. specific — audience, incorporating all manner of slapstick and double entendre in the mix. Amongst the mishigas, from a battle with a giant to a literal workers’ army, is a comic interpretation on the medieval class struggle of which both Karl and Groucho Marx might well have approved.
As the aptly titled The London Merchant begins, it is disrupted by the Cockney grocers George (David Melville) and Nell (Sabra Williams), who insist their apprentice Rae (Bukola Ogunmola) play the lead in a secondary plot that has her go off and do “rare things.” With ample support from the audience, she— Beaumont’s original character is a male named Rafe — becomes a “grocer errant,” the star of The Knight of the Burning Pestle (the term “burning pestle” holding varied carnal allusions during Beaumont’s epoch).
Meanwhile in that other play, Jasper (Kelvin Morales), lowly apprentice to the wealthy merchant Sir Venturewell (Richard Azurdia), is fired when he reveals his love for his master’s daughter, Luce (Carene Mekertichyan). Venturewell arranges Luce to be wed to the rich and foppish Humphrey (Patrick Batiste), but Jasper and Luce hatch a plot to foil that plan so they can elope. Along for the raucous ride is Mistress Merrythought (Amanda Hootman), Jasper’s mom, who is leaving her drunken wastrel of a husband Mister Merrythought (William Elsman) and taking her younger son Michael (Aaron Allan) —and her jewelry — with her.
But each time George and Nell get bored with those misadventures, they clamor for new and increasingly outrageous acts for Rae to perform, to which the stodgy cast grudgingly acquiesces. As characters insert themselves into each others’ plays, though, all involved realize that whatever their differences (affluent or commoner, even actor or audience member), each has a positive role to play on the great stage of life, especially when it comes to singing along to hokey and heartfelt tunes by a riotously boozy Mister Merrythought.
Mekertichyan and Morales evince a credible charisma as the young lovers, while the pretention of Azurdia’s Venturewell, the inanity of Hootman’s Mistress Merrythought and the narcissism of Batiste’s Humphrey are easily recognizable to anyone familiar with the affectations of Hollywood’s rich and famous. The other supporting cast members do justice to the piece in their varied roles while designers Ruoxuan Li’s and Yasamin Sarabipour’s costumes are as colorful and outlandish as the hullabaloo Chalsma has skillfully placed on the small stage. And as Rae, Ogunmola gleams as the “every person” of the piece, hesitant at the beginning of their quirky quest but through trial and error becoming emboldened and discovering the hero within. No wonder she receives such empathy from the crowd: we are her and she is us. Lay on Rae, lay on!
The Old Zoo at Griffith Park, 4801 Griffith Park Dr, Los Angeles; Wed.-Sun.., 7 p.m.; thru July 31. Running time 2 hours and 15 minutes, plus a 15 minute intermission. www.iscla.org
