“I fear your ambition,” says 19th-century actor Lawrence Barrett to Edwin Booth. “And I fear your fall from grace,” says Booth to Barrett. The dynamic between these two characters, masterfully brought to life by Cory Jefferson Hagen (Barrett) and John Mundschau Glowacki (Booth), forms a riveting centerpiece to Angela Iannone’s The Seeds of Banquo . The play is the fourth in her Edwin Booth Play Cycle and chronicles the great American actor’s 1870 production of Macbeth. The story of the cursed Scottish king and Booth’s own tragic family situation (his brother was John Wilkes) are as deftly entwined as the fibers in Marshall Anderson’s exquisite Victorian costumes. A sign of his almost obsessive devotion to art, Edwin insists on rehearsing even as his second wife undergoes a difficult and bloody childbirth.
Despite its tragic subject matter, Iannone’s script is never heavy handed and humorous moments abound as the characters banter about everything from medieval men’s fashion to the nature of theatrical truth.
Brilliant performances buttress the dialogue. Glowacki’s star turn is fervent and fevered; his voice and expression well convey an actor who “shares his emotions in a way that is almost as intimate as a lover.” As Lawrence—playing Banquo in Booth’s production—Hagen is utterly believable as a fine actor doomed to live in the shadow of his dear friend and determined to have a son at any cost. Sasha Katherine Sigel is charming and appropriately naïve as his mistress who can never quite be pitied as her own ambition rivals that of the men around her. Theater RED’s cofounder, Marcee Doherty-Elst, is solid as Mrs. DP Bowers, the leading lady in Booth’s production; hers are some of the most incisive observations about the effect the almost deified actor has on those he worked with, and Doherty-Elst’s gravitas befits the character of the grande dame famous in her own right. Last but not least, Bryan Quinn is superb as Mr. Owen Fawcett, a second-string actor who just happens to spend a great deal of time around the Booth Theatre and thus happens to become close to its denizens. The sprightly Quinn delights as a performer of lesser fame and ego who serves as insightful everyman opposite the profession’s colossi.
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Through Aug. 23 at Soulstice Theatre, 3770 S. Pennsylvania Ave., St. Francis. For tickets visit theaterred.com.
