Theater Review—

‘Stage Beauty,’ In New Milford,

Could Be Farnol’s Best Direction Yet

By Julie Stern

NEW MILFORD — The multi-talented Jane Farnol is directing Jeffrey Hatcher’s 2000 period piece about the rebirth of the theater in the early days of the English Restoration, Compleat Female Stage Beauty, currently on the boards at TheatreWorks New Milford, and this could well be the best thing she has ever done. I say that because it must be the director who is able to elicit such consummate performances from every one of her 16 performers, and who can pace a show so effortlessly that the multitude of scenes flow seamlessly by.

The play, which is hugely enjoyable, is set one year since the English Monarchy was restored. After having King Charles I beheaded, Oliver Cromwell, the rebellious army officer who had led a revolution, governed the country for 11 years, during which time he imposed his own harsh puritanical values, and among other tyrannical decrees he banned acting and closed all the theaters.

When Cromwell died in 1660, the king’s son, Charles II (Bonnie Prince Charlie) returned from exile and “restored” the pleasure loving lifestyle of his father’s world, complete with the reopening of the theaters and bawdy revels in the Royal Court.  At that time, (as had always been the tradition in England) female roles were played by young men.

The most famous of these was the Shakespearean actor Edward Kynaston, who had been declared “the most beautiful woman on the English stage.” His enormously successful career is interrupted – and his sense of identity is shattered – when King Charlie, under the urging of his mistress, Nell Gwynn, decrees that women should be allowed to perform in the theater, and that it is now forbidden for men to play women’s parts.

How Kynaston manages to recoup his fortune and find a new role for himself in the theater – with the help of his former dresser and two of the women who replace him – is the plot of the play, and it is by turns hilariously funny, outrageously bawdy, and deeply moving.

More important, however, is the way the play – under Farnol’s direction, and with some marvelous acting – brings to life a period that many Americans think of as icky, stuffy, boring and sissified, full of men in powdered wigs and lace and satin.

Jeremiah M. Maestas is remarkable in the role of Kynaston, a defiantly effeminate young man who is dedicated to his craft and proud of his acting skill. When his livelihood is stripped away and he is badly beaten by hired thugs, he radiates such fear, despair, and bitterness that you want to weep for him.

Ramsay Cole is marvelous as the King, exercising the sacred right of Royalty to be as willfully stupid and self-indulgent as possible.

Krystopher Perry is wonderfully two-faced and treacherous as the handsome Duke of Buckingham, who carries on a torrid love affair with Kynaston as long as the actor is important, but who cuts him dead in order to form a socially advantageous marriage, once his friend is an outcast.

Thomas Libonate is hilarious as Sir Charles Sedley, an insufferable fop with a painted face, who does everything he can to destroy Kynaston in revenge for an insult.

Keir Hansen gives another of his usually effective performances as the head of the acting company and sometime friend, who would like to help Kynaston but needs to fill his theater.

Missy Slaymaker-Hanlon gives a very moving interpretation to the role of Maria, Kynaston’s former dresser and subsequent replacement. Margaret Ann King is rowdy and charming as the King’s mistress, Nell Gwynn. Kara Peters is very funny in the part of a truly awful actress whose chief selling point is that she is a woman. However, she has the depth and sensitivity to be able to empathize with the fallen Kynaston.

Paula Anderson is riotous as the dildo-wielding mistress of ceremonies at the low-level dive where Kynaston is reduced to appearing. Jim Lones is avuncular and cheery as the diarist Samuel Pepys, whose attendance at the various performances allows him to act as an occasional narrator.

In all, this is a wonderful picture of a bawdy, licentious, sexually ambivalent era when all restraints were lifted, and morality was to be avoided at all costs. The sense of historical time and place is enhanced by the lavish eye-catching costumes, which represent the work of ten seamstresses and an investment by TheatreWorks of many thousands of dollars. For a show as good as this, it was definitely worth it.

Do not bring young children, but if you’re an adult, this is a show not to be missed.

(Performances continue on weekends until October 21. Call 860-350-6863 for reservations and additional information.)