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review Angelo (Stephen R. Ohab, Jr.) is appointed Deputy while the Duke (Ty T. Turner) is away. Half Pat Buchanan, half Ralph Reed, he then proceeds to purge the city of its sexually active population. Claudio (Jason Buuck), arrested and sentenced to death for getting his girlfriend pregnant, asks his sister, Isabella (Shannon Mahoney), a novice nun, to argue his case. Smitten with the woman, Angelo agrees to free Claudio...but for a price. Turner's Duke has a rich voice, but his speeches sound more like line recitations than human dialogue. Ohab is perfectly slimy but doesn't advertise the fact--he lets us find that out ourselves--and Buuck's palpable terror as he pleads with his sister is subtle and scary. Mahoney's cold exterior plays off these opposites; her scenes with the two are riveting, her reactions suggesting that there's more than a little sexual fascist inside her, too. In smaller roles, Kevin Doyel's Don Knotts impression as Elbow and Scott E. Nabb's fey, ass-kissing "bawd" Pompey are good, and Chelsea Linson's kindness as the Provost neatly belies her concentration-camp matron exterior. Besides a couple of actors wretchedly playing drunks, only Justin Walvord's gratuitously flitting and mincing Lucio set my teeth on edge. He's awesome with the dialogue, but the portrayal is stereotypical to the point of obnoxiousness. With those exceptions, and a couple of boring exposition scenes, director Dean Hess' impeccable direction makes all of the right choices. Most particularly, his staging of this modern dress, straight-from-the-headlines-relevant version of Shakespeare's classic has opened up the play's final moment in a way that will haunt you for days. Cal State Fullerton's Arena Theatre, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton, (714) 278-3371. Wed.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2:30 & 8 p.m.; Sun. 5p.m. Thru Nov. 15. $6-$8. |