Review: Quintessence's 'The Venetian Twins'
Quintessence’s production of Goldoni's 1747 comedy 'The Venetian Twins' bubbles with great acting and contemporary pop-cult fun, says Jim Rutter.
By Jim Rutter
For The Inquirer
Identical twins gave writers the original basis for situation comedy. Mistaken identity, the ability to appear in two places at once, and jealousy all flow from this prenatal premise for humor.
Dramatists from Plautus to Paula Vogel have built plays around twins, but none with as much flair and comic mastery as Carlo Goldoni's 1747 The Venetian Twins. Under Alexander Burns' inspired direction, Quintessence Theatre Group's side-splitting contemporary staging surpasses Goldoni's success.
The Venetian Twins finds brothers Zanetto and Tonino (Josh Carpenter) in Verona. Both seek wives, neither knows of the other's plans, and they haven't seen each other since childhood. While genetics gave
them identical appearances, separate upbringings fashioned them into opposite personalities.
Goldoni took this twist on nature and packed it with types: sassy maid, smiling villain, and prissy would-be warrior. Burns contemporizes these into a finger-snapping Spanish servant, spurned Scarlett O'Hara, and un-closeted Errol Flynn (Daniel Frederick's excellent Lelio). The 1940s musical accompaniment ("Making Whoopee," among others) echoes the play's warnings about marriage and underscores the art deco decor flanking the Sedgwick Theater's barebones wood stage.
As Zanetto, Carpenter hobbles bowlegged across the stage, speaks with a thick drawl, and yet draws genuine sympathy. His Tonino dashes into action, elicits admiration, and elocutes verse with ease. Every remaining member of Quintessence's 12-actor ensemble similarly thrills. Bethany Ditnes gives an absolutely edible performance as the mousy Rosaura, and Khris Davis puts his own twist on Larry, Curly, and Moe in his portrayal of Zanetto's servant, Arlecchino.
Burns leavens Ranjit Bolt's adaptation with plenty of pop-culture references, transforming slapstick into cartoonish abandon and coloring romantic jealousy with the emotional levity of a John Hughes film. The cast improvises a number of asides, and a single moment of audience interaction nearly tops any joke found in the text.
Ian Rose's goofy fight choreography has actors pop up from punches with tongues wagging and eyeballs rolling. Entertainment continues between acts, with the cast's "let's put on a show" commedia attitude filling both intermissions with a cappella and accompanied renditions of big-band standards.
Toward the end of the 2-hour production, the play veers into darker themes, which Benim Foster's superb portrayal of the treacherous Pancrazio tempers as a hybrid of Snidely Whiplash and Alan Rickman's grinning terrorist from Die Hard. But you don't need to have grown up on pop culture to appreciate Goldoni's humor; at Quintessence, you just need a set of lungs for laughing.
At the Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave.. in repertory with Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice through Nov. 19. Tickets $15-$30. Information: 877-238-5596 or quintessencetheatre.org