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Corleone: The Shakespearean Godfather |
Through 10/7/2007
Reviewed by Steve Callahan
The Non-Prophet Theater has opened a splendid production of Corleone: The Shakespearean Godfather, and I urge you not to miss this unusual mixture of Mafia and Bard. To blend gangland with classical poetic language is not a new idea; Bertolt Brecht placed the classical hexameters of Goethe's Faust in the mouths of his Chicago gangsters in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
But in this David Mann adaptation of The Godfather the device is much more wondrously effective. Whereas Brecht used elevated language to mock the brutishness of his Hitlerish thugs, David Mann uses iambic pentameter and Elizabethan constructs to wrap this story in an aura of nobility, tragedy and powerfully intense drama.
And it absolutely works! It magnifies the sense of ancient and inviolable family honor and places these warring clans firmly in the world of the great Renaissance Italian dukes they so resemble--the Sforzas, the Borgias, the Medici. The deep reverence for The Don, the courtly ritual of kissing the hand, the Machiavellian plots and counter-plots, the oaths and betrayals, the questions of succession--all contribute to this sense of classical Mediterranean intrigue. As with Shakespeare the story is leavened with scenes of low comedy (in prose). There are, as I'd expected, occasional intentional laughs from anachronisms, but these are mere tiny morsels of delight and don't detract at all from the overall power of the storytelling. There is quite a bit of swordplay and other violence. It's all beautifully done and convincing, which in such a small venue is impressive indeed.
The production is anchored by two fine performances: Chuck Lavazzi fills the aging Don with a sense of great power and authority very comfortably wielded over the decades. And Andrew Neiman plays young Michael with a simply stunning focus. When he warns his straying brother, "Against the family take not sides again . . . ever," his flinty menace chills the spine. The supporting ensemble does wonders in making the various roles each must play distinct and believable. The sibling dynamic is strongly present and true. Fredo was just a fool in the novel; here Joseph Garner makes him properly and beautifully the Court Fool. Jared Nell, as Sonny, bursts with eager violence.
Tyson Blanquart is both touching and hilarious as hit-man Luca Brasi, who approaches the Don with timidity and mouthfuls of malapropisms, and Aaron Baker shows strength and cunning as Sollozzo. B. Weller, who has so often used that boyish charm or his gift for goofiness to such good effect, here plays a convincing Frank Sinatra in a career slump; and even more impressively he gives Carlo an utterly believable cruel brutishness. Julie Venegoni and Nicole Angeli do fine work as the Don's daughter and as Michael's fiancée from the outside world who helplessly watches "the business" swallow him.
Director Robert Mitchell has done wonders with the many challenges in this piece in this place: the minimal set, the necessary doubling of actors, the quick changes, and the age-old problem of "how do ya get rid of the bodies". All most gracefully and effectively done.
It's strong stuff. It's riveting. It's Corleone, produced by the Non-Prophet Theater at the Regional Arts Commission through October 7 [2007]. For more information, call 314-752-5075 or send email to
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The NonProphet Theatre Company