Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Despite being an artifact of another era, Robert Bolt’s A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS is solidly revived by FPA

• By drediman
• February 4, 2019
• No Comments

Michael Countryman and Kim Wong star in Robert Bolt’s “A Man for All Seasons”, a production by Fellowship for Performing Arts at Theatre Row. Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

This weekend at Theatre Row, I caught Fellowship for Performing Arts’ Off-Broadway revival of Robert Bolt’s Tony- and Oscar-winning A Man for All Seasons. For those of you who haven’t seen the play nor the film, Mr. Bolt’s play tells the story of Sir Thomas More, a respected man of principle and one of King Henry V’s chief advisors. When More’s moral and religious convictions conflict with the king’s political aspirations – namely, falsifying his current barren marriage in order to produce a legitimate heir with a subsequent wife – things predictably don’t end up well for More.

So how does the 1960 play hold up more than half a century since its first performance? Well, unsurprisingly, it’s beginning to show its age. A Man for All Seasons is a wordy play that relies on carefully-crafted, semi-highbrow intellectual and moral arguments – as well as a good dollop of telegraphed melodramatics – to sustain its dramatic momentum. Indeed, it’s the kind of clean-cut play that I doubt would be written today. In its stead, historical fiction comes in the punchy form of highly sexualized and politicized works like the two (soon to be three) part Wolf Hall, a piece which shares many of the characters and situations as Mr. Bolt’s work.

Luckily, FPA’s production is a solid one. Director Christa Scott-Reed has opted for a fleet-footed, suggestive approach (I particularly applaud the color-blind casting) rather than a naturalistic one. It serves the play well by bridging its still-relevant themes to our current political and social landscape. The acting all-around is strong, in the grand old school of declarative pseudo-Shakespearean acting. There’s nothing at all wrong with this. In fact, it’s exactly the acting aesthetic the material calls for, although it does give the whole affair a somewhat musty air.

RECOMMENDED

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
Off-Broadway, Play
Fellowship for Performing Arts at Theatre Row
2 hours, 30 minutes (with one intermission)
Through March 3