Tuesday, February 2, 2010

I know I love in vain, strive against hope

Bertram's a pill. All's Well That Ends Well is, they say, a "problem play". I don't think it's so much a problem play. I think it has a problem character: Bertram. I suppose a director could create more problems in the play, like portraying Diana as truly in love with Bertram, or making her mother a prostitute, or making Helena a gold-digger, or the countess a drunk, or the king a despot. Wait, the king is a despot. But really, the only problem with the play as is is that Bertram has been written as a selfish and immature lad, and even that isn't an insurmountable problem until the end when, as Bertram is faced with the truth, Shakespeare still has him try to weasel and squirm his way out of being an honorable man. As Harold Goddard wrote, "It is conceivable that a rare actor, by suggesting the struggle within the man and his suppressed abhorrence of the very lies he is telling, might make the miracle at the end convincing. But the text is against him."

All the photos are from the USF website

It is conceivable that a director, too, might try to make Bertram more sympathetic. In a 1996 production in Washington, DC, Laird Williamson attempted it and, according to some critics, was successful. He started the play showing Bertram and Helena as childhood friends who cared for each other, and the grown Bertram was portrayed as someone who was really good inside but had been misled by Parolles. So when I opened my program at the theatre in Cedar City, back in October 2005 during the Utah Shakespearean Festival's fall season, and saw in the cast of characters the names "Young Bertram" and "Young Helena", I figured here was another director who was attempting to give us a buffered version of Bertram.

I appreciated the effort. I like the character of Helena. I'm one of those who believe that fate, not deliberate pursuit, brought her together with Bertram in Florence. I can appreciate the medieval sources of the story just enough not to be very disturbed by the bed trick. And since I do like Helena, I want Bertram's repentance at the end to be sincere. I don't mind some element of insecurity as far as their relationship goes, but I want them to have at least a hint of hope that they'll be able to make a life together.

The director of the USF production, J R Sullivan, went for just such an interpretation. At several points, he took the opportunity to show a kinder side of Bertram. Yes, Bertram was eager to be off into the world and no longer tied down at his mother's house; yes, he was chagrined at being told he was too young to go to the wars.


And yes, he was appalled at the manner of his marriage. Who wouldn't be? Even Helena was appalled by that time and could hardly obey the king's command to join hands with her husband-to-be. But later, when Helena knelt before Bertram and said she could nothing say but that she was his servant, he was again appalled and tried to make her stand - this in spite of his earlier protests that she was too far beneath him to merit matrimony (his comment about such a marriage bringing him down almost got boos from the audience). And when Helena was finally able to tell him that she hoped for a kiss, he hesitated then relented, seeming to think there could be no harm in it. He took her by the arms. Then, just as he was about to kiss her, he saw Parolles watching from a doorway behind Helena. Embarrassed at being caught in a tender moment, Bertram curtly dismissed Helena.

At the moment when Bertram told Dumaine that Helena has (so he thinks) died, he seemed genuinely sorry, but only at that moment, and he quickly recovered. Then came the final scene with the lies and the twisting this way and that to get himself out of a fix, but, like a man in a morass, he found himself sinking farther in. Then Helena appeared. It's a good thing she was so gentle with him because everyone, it seemed, took their cue from her. And so he was a changed man. His line "If she can make me know this clearly" was said more as a profession of hope and contrition than as a challenge. The king once again joined their hands. Helena moved as if to leave Bertram - she was not going to force the relationship - but he tightened his grasp and took her by the other hand as well, looked at her repentantly, and kissed her. Not exactly a happy ending, but one with hope.


And yet, as we were leaving the theatre, I heard someone say, "Why would she want to marry him?"

3 comments:

Jared and Megan said...

Interesting. I wish I could remember more of what this play was about, but for some reason I can't. Have I never seen it?

I think it's funny that someone said that at the end when everyone was leaving.

Shannon said...

Did I see this one? The lady in the blue nightgown looks familiar.

Janeite42 said...

I don't think either of you have seen this one. But it has become one of my favorite plays. I don't know, maybe because I'm older, more mature (ha!), or more cynical, but some of the plays I loved in my youth (Midsummer Night's Dream, Taming of the Shrew, Romeo & Juliet) have given place to so-called more difficult ones, like Measure for Measure, All's Well That Ends Well, Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, etc.

Shannon - the lady in the blue nightgown? Nightgown??