The swashbuckling sword play began even before the actors hit the stage when "The Three Musketeers" opened at the Duluth Playhouse on Thursday night.
As kids we called this "swording" (you pronounce the silent "W"), and we all agreed the best swording was done with rapiers rather than cutlasses or sabers (we just used twigs and paper towel tubes). Rest assured, there are plenty of rapiers thrusting and parrying in this entertaining, high-energy production.
This is Ken Ludwig's rousing version of the classic novel, where the young D'Artangnan (Luke Moravec) meets up with the titular trio of Athos (Keith Shelbourn), Porthos (Joel Moline) and Aramis (Abe Curran). This is a decidedly tongue-in-cheek telling of the tale that embraces anachronistic turns of phrase to fine comic effect to give the hard-working cast time to catch their breath between all the running, jumping and fighting.
In the swording department, "The Three Musketeers" features eight sword fights, choreographed by Brian Kess. The first act ends with the most frenetic fight, where the three Musketeers and D'Artagnan take on a quintet of the Cardinal's guards in a whirlwind of action that demands instant replay to catch everything you missed while you were watching whatever you were watching.
The second act concludes with the longest duel, which somewhat surprisingly comes between the remarkably evil M'Lady (Jen Bergum) and D'Artangnan's sister, Sabine (Cheryl Skafte). In between there is the one-eyed Rochefort (John Bergum) coolly fighting one-handed, the wounded Athos fighting left-handed, and Porthos using swords in both hands when outnumbered, all mixed in with kicking, punching and even hair-pulling.
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The most riveting performance is turned in by Michael Walke as the villain, Cardinal Richelieu, the calculated cadences of his voice reeking of oil of Machiavelli. The crowd favorite was Skafte, whose kid sister character was created by Ludwig to embody on stage the little kid inside us all who love swording, Freudian interpretations be damned.
As the King and Queen, Chris Nollet and Christa Schulz evoked laughter from the audience before they even opened their mouths. Nick Elias had the show's scene-stealing comic moment in what can only be described as a little dance of death. It also was nice to see Shelbourn have a nice dramatic moment when the adventure turns deadly serious.
The show has an hour of original theatrical underscoring by Ryan Rapsys, offering 17th century harmonies dressed up electronically and featuring an astral harpsichord on about four dozen bits of music. There are some moments when the volume of the music overwhelms the dialogue, but there are more instances where Rapsys perfectly underscores the mood change from combat to romance, a truly tricky feat of timing when you are talking about live theatre.
Curtis Phillips' massive and impressive set design offers director Cal Metts more than a dozen places for his cast to enter and exit, which keeps the action moving. The costumes designed by Carole Brossart were another visual delight, from Porthos' gaudy garb to M'Lady's blood wine dress and the King's puffy cuffs.
Oh, and did I mention that there is swording? Lots and lots of swording.
LAWRANCE BERNABO always thinks ethos, pathos and logos when he hears "The Three Musketeers," but that is just a rhetorician thing.
