Apr 11, 2008

'Musketeers' imaginatively retold

Local playwright scores with world premiere production

By John Angell Grant / Theater Reviewer

Seventeenth-century street-smart murderesses who fall in love with each other are part of the absorbing world premiere of playwright Anna Budd's "The Three Musketeers and the Famous Female Duelist of France."

The show is currently running at the Flex Theater at Canada College in Redwood City, where Budd works as a drama teacher.

This is a very original and interesting new play. Budd has loosely adapted Alexandre Dumas' famous "Three Musketeers" novel.

She has taken significant liberties to rework both the story and characters to create a new tale of swordplay and romance that bends gender and pushes into prominence women who are aggressive and independent, and unapologetic about it.

In "The Three Musketeers and the Famous Female Duelist of France," young, green country bumpkin D'Artagnan sets off to Paris to join the musketeers, a tradition his father also pursued.

When Dumas wrote his novel in 1844, he was telling a story from about 1625. The musketeers turn out to be a cross between the Special Forces and kung fu masters, with a little street gang thrown in for urban social disruptive purposes.

Although it's illegal to duel on the streets of 17th-century Paris, musketeers and their factional rivals repeatedly call each other out and brawl, sometimes to the death. The impromptu skirmishes get D'Artagnan and his musketeer pals in trouble.

Their archenemy, Cardinal Richelieu, takes advantage of that. Interwoven around the musketeer story is an entertaining soap opera about the political and romantic shenanigans of the king and queen, and their various sidekicks.

The wrinkle for this adaptation is that playwright Budd has thrown into the story all sorts of humorous and thoughtful gender politics.

There is a very interesting relationship, for example, between the swishy French king Louis XIII (Benjamin Honor-McKeen), and his intelligent, philandering wife Queen Anne (Jenna White).

The swishy king appears to love his wife. What the heck is going on in this relationship? Will her incriminating necklace be found in time to save the marriage?

Elsewhere, mysterious homicidal women foment serious intrigue. Independent lesbian babes include tough street swordswoman La Maupin (Alisha Ehrlich) and the evil court troublemaker Milady Du Winter (Claire Cover). Those two eventually draw weapons for a woman-to-woman smackdown.

Playwright Budd keeps it light and funny. There's a lot of magic in the story, which honors Dumas' original.

At the same time, the unusual gender politics story lines open the piece up to both a greater level of complexity and a greater level of truth. It all works fine.

The one false story note is why would the sensible and apparently together queen have such a ridiculous boyfriend, at least as it's played here, as the Duke of Buckingham?

Doubling as director, Budd has loaded the production up with lots of impressive stage sword craft choreography. There isn't a ton of stage experience in the cast, but director Budd has drawn affecting performances from her actors.

The production's cast includes students from Canada College, and older folks from the surrounding community. Effective performances include Amber Bruce's gregarious, in-your-face bar wench, and Chelsea Hinkson's noble ingenue Constance, aide to the Queen of France.

In many ways this is a remarkable achievement. Kudos to the Canada theater department. The school should be proud to have hosted the world premiere of such an entertaining and thoughtful play.

Most new plays come and go, but "The Three Musketeers and the Famous Female Duelist of France" is one that can have sustained life.

Rating: Three and a half stars

E-mail John Angell Grant at jagplays@yahoo.com.