Skip to main contentOther than taste and craftsmanship, there is not much separating the 18th-century palazzi of Venice and the McMansions of modern Venice Beach: Both bespeak wealth and comfort, not to mention a generous spooning of vanity. And though the clothes are surely different (silk and brocade of the Age of Enlightenment vs. American slobwear in the Age of Entitlement), the people clad within are more akin than foreign. Thus, with some conceptual twisting and tweaking, Carlo Goldoni's world easily becomes our own.
Portland playwright Joseph Fisher has taken on the Venetian master and has created a very smart and comical adaptation of Goldoni's La Casa Nova. Goldoni's people are highly sophisticated reworkings of commedia dell'arte's stock characters. Fisher's folk, too, are classically American after their kind: the leggy trophy wife, the professional man at midlife crisis, the ditzy blonde, the spoiled brat, the wisecracking good friend and the bliss-addled Earth child.
Fisher's dialogue is more terse and rapid-fire than Goldoni's, but then he is also mining classic American screwball comedy for inspiration. Fisher also loads his play with almost just-pulled-from-the-A.P.-wire topicality, which gives this piece even more freshness.
Stuck with an unfinished new house, a demanding new wife, and an even newer case of bankruptcy, record producer Anthony (Tim True) must find a way out of his debt without injuring his male pride. His old friend and accountant, Frank (Tony St. Clair), tries to reason with him, to little avail; Anthony would rather fib and scheme his way out of trouble. But his teenage daughter, Minnie (Grace Myrtille), is hell-bent on going to Brown, and his barely legal, ex-cheerleader wife, Cecilia (Kali Stivison), plans further "improvements" on a house that is already spinning Anthony toward a poorhouse.
Jon Kretzu's production moves swiftly, though his cast hasn't quite found an ensemble style yet. Some have created wonderfully fleshed-out comic characters (St. Clair and Kelly Tallent, whose chakra-reading Lucy steals the entire show), others, such as Myrtille and Stivison, seem more like one-dimensional cartoons. Sarah Lucht's Rose is currently straddling the fence. Lucht is good as the sweetly dim Rose, but some of her line readings are far too forced and, therefore, unfunny. With a bit more trust in the material, Lucht might soon rival Tallent as the piece's star comedian.
Though Robert Tollefson is usually a set designer to watch, his set here is not his best, though he might have been handicapped by ART's periodic cheapness when it comes to design.
However, if further proof is needed that Portland actually has a fine young playwright maturing in its midst, gondola your way to ART and have a look in at what Joseph Fisher is currently accomplishing.
Artists Repertory Theatre, 1516 SW Alder St., 241-1278. 7 pm Tuesdays-Thursdays, 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays, 2 and 7 pm Sundays. Closes June 27. $15-$32.
Carlo Goldoni (1709-1793)
WWeek 2015