New group shows promise

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| Wednesday, March 19, 2003 |

Ruby Nancy

Prenzie starts with Shakespeare's �Measure'

There once was a time when theater folks were mostly traveling bands of players who would put on a show wherever they were � pulling out something already written, using props and costumes on hand, using actors for whatever roles cropped up, and creating a "stage" from whatever space was available.

Thank goodness some traditions never die.

The Prenzie Players, a brand-new theater group in the Quad-Cities dedicated to producing the works of William Shakespeare, launch their first show this weekend, and the topnotch "Measure for Measure" is � I sincerely hope � the first of many, many more to come.

Director J.C. Luxton, one of the Prenzie founders (whose playbill credits "the cast" as co-director), helms a fresh and wonderful production of the 400-year-old play. A comedy with a dark, serious edge to it, "Measure for Measure" provokes thought as well as laughter, and these players are true to the heart and soul of this material.

The three central characters � Vincentio, Duke of Vienna, Angelo, the Duke's deputy, and Isabella, a young woman whose brother is scheduled for execution � carry the dramatic threads of the story. The Duke (masterfully played by a sharp, intense, gloriously handsome and superbly smooth Aaron E. Bennin-Sullivan) fakes a trip abroad so he can walk among the common people disguises as a friar, and appoints Angelo (a chilly, equally intense Michael Callahan) in his stead.

Isabella, a novice (the stunning, passionately eloquent Cait Woolley), leaves her convent to plead the case of her brother before Angelo, who has sentenced the brother, Claudio, to die. The struggle at the core of this story belongs to young Isabella, when Angelo offers her a deal: she can save her brother's life by consenting to sex with the deputy. One of the greatest roles for a young woman in all of the Shakespearean canon, Isabella is caught between the brutality of a power-mad, judgmental religious fanatic and her brother's weakness � and Woolley's fantastic work here is completely on par with the great writing that makes this part such a fabulous one. She's beautiful in an otherworldly yet earthy way, and she is powerfully evocative and emotionally compelling on a level that few modern performers of classic material ever seem to attain, and she will literally blow you away with her work in this show.

Even with its serious subject matter, this play really is a comedy. And Woolley and Callahan play a pair of riotously funny supporting characters, too. He is Mistress Overdone, a long-past-her-prime lady of the evening, and Woolley is an easily entertained gentleman who keeps the "entertainer" company. Six other actors play a dozen more roles � many of which are also comedic in

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nature. There are jokes about all the usual things � sex and death, pregnancy and promiscuity, drunkenness and false piety � the basics of comedy, if you will. And many more things will have you laughing, too.

The best of these company players who lend laughter, lewdness and lively energy to this show are Jill Sullivan-Bennin and Denise Yoder, who play multiple roles of both genders and all types. Yoder is saucy and hilarious as Pompey, the snappy male sidekick of Mistress Overdone, fussy and funny as an uptight nun, then plays a serious role as Angelo's long-abandoned fiancee. And Sullivan-Bennin turns up again and again on wonderful and unexpected ways � as an unwed mother-to-be, an elderly potbellied friar, a dimwitted constable, an executioner you have to see to believe, and more.

A slick, eclectic mix of hip and neo-conservative costumes dominated by black fabrics are set off by occasional touches of wine, charcoal, red, cream or white, and they lend a polish and sophistication to the show that really works. The tiny, urban performance space used for this show reinforces both the intimacy of the emotion and the hilarity it embodies � and the informal immediacy of performers (who sometimes address the audience and sometimes join it) is as fresh for 2003 as it is true to the legacy of the Bard.

This "Measure" is a fantastic show scheduled to run for just two performances, and I predict it will leave jam-packed, cheek-to-jowl audiences panting for more. And that's a crowd you can bet I'll be right in the middle of.

if you go

"Measure for Measure," by Prenzie Players

When: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, March 21-22

Where: The Peanut Gallery Art House, 300 21st St., Rock Island

How much: $5 at door