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Picture: Steven Bidwell as Pandarus
Trojan Love Affair in the Park
By Michael Cohen
Want to experience Shakespeare with nothing but the evening stars and a few halogen flood lights pointed at the staging areas beneath mighty white oaks? Want to be within a few feet of the next generation of Hollywood and Broadway hopefuls? Bring a lawn chair, a couple of cold drinks, some bug spray and the Hudson Shakespeare Company is your ticket, free ticket.
On July 15, the Hudson Shakespeare Company presented the second performance of Troilus and Cressida at Staib Park in Hackensack before more than 50 residents.
“We have a very solid presence here in Hackensack," said Director Jon Ciccarelli. "Even with some of the more off-beat shows, such as Troilus and Cressida, the people have been pretty receptive. This one has a combination of comedy and action, that is why we decided to do this one outside."
The play is one of Shakespeare's lesser known problem plays and not easy to categorize as tragedy, comedy, or satire since it encompasses elements of each. The play details the passionate love affair of the Trojan warrior Troilus and Cressida, the daughter of Calchas, a Trojan who has sided with the Greeks. The seeming unending Trojan war provides the backcloth for the events of the play.
The performance aspires toward a good and daring off-Broadway showing. The youthful energy of the acting company fills the stage, even with the admittedly difficult contradictory Shakespearean text.
The play opens with Thersites, played by Ashley Addleman, who sets the context of the play in the prologue. Cressida, played by Stephanie Jones, debates whom to marry with her flamboyant uncle Pandarus, played by Steven Bidwell, who advises her in matters of love. Jones is passionate, emotional and gentle, she is the archetypical gir-next-door. However, later in the play, Cressida betrays Trolius when she is attracted to the Greek warrior Diomedes.
Troilus, played by the ebullient Hugo Salazar, Jr. comes across as a bit of a fool. Salazar's Troilus is timid when eh approaches Cressida, finding it hard to embrace her, or even speak to her without making himself into a larger fool. It is this boyish behavior that takes a bit away from Troilus' actions of revenge later in the play. Instead of seeming an assertive warrior determined to defend the woman he thinks he loves, we perceive a man who is so intimated that he needs the support of his older brother, Hector, to get even with the Greeks.
Troilus and Cressida wraps its run with performances in Hoboken, Fort Lee and Jersey City, Kenilworth and Connecticut, but Ciccarelli will being another Shakespearean play to Hackensack this month, The Merry Wives of Windsor will be performed at Staib Park on Aug. 5 and Aug. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
