DATE: Friday, November 14, 1997             TAG: 9711120138

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH          PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: THEATER REVIEW 

SOURCE: Montague Gammon III 

                                            LENGTH:   70 lines

SHAKESPEARE HANDLED WELL AT WESLEYAN

Students of various abilities got to stretch their acting talents, and veteran performers got to exercise theirs, in the Virginia Wesleyan College production of Shakespeare's ``Measure for Measure.''

Rarely will any school tackle material more challenging than that provided by Shakespeare. First the young actors must fully understand the 400-year-old vocabulary, ways of thinking and a social milieu that may be alien to them, and poetry to which they may have had little exposure.

Then they must memorize the lines exactly as they were written, for paraphrases can be glaringly obvious, and they must learn how to speak verse, rather than prose. Only then can they confront all the usual difficulties of performing, such as motivation, characterization, tempo and the like.

Once they are actually on stage, enunciation is at a premium and emotional clarity is vital as complex plots and interactions whirl along.

In ``Measure for Measure'' a ruling Duke leaves his land in the hands of his subordinate Angelo. Pretending to travel far away, he disguises himself as a friar and observes how Angelo rules in his absence.

Angelo begins strictly to enforce laws that have long been ignored, tearing down houses of prostitution and most notably condemning to death a young man simply for impregnating the woman he planned to marry.

Friends of Claudio, the condemned lover, implore Angelo to relent. Isabella, Claudio's sister who is about to enter a convent, takes up their argument. The hypocritical Angelo offers Isabella her brother's life if she will sleep with him.

Through a trick Angelo's plot is revealed, Isabella's virginity preserved, Claudio's life saved and all ends reasonably happily for the good guys.

The show is done in modern dress, and references to the locale have been changed to place the events in Virginia. That adds a few amusing references to the script, but does not materially affect the course of the drama.

Some of the VWC students are in themselves experienced actors. Jason Stiles, who plays the stern but merciful Duke, has done a number of leading roles, and his ease on stage serves him well. Other familiar faces on the VWC stage are Brian Monahan, bringing to Angelo the right pinched and petty tone, and the big, blond John R. Farrell Jr., who makes Claudio a sort of simple, leading man type.

Jennifer Zigler and Karissa Peckham alternate the roles of Isabella and Angelo's discarded fiancee Marianna. Last Sunday afternoon Zigler played the sweet-faced Isabella, who is as sure of her moral absolutes as Angelo is of his, and Peckham the more human Marianna. Jami Macmanama turns in a forceful performance as the madam Mistress Overdone.

Director and VWC professor Rick Hite has two short scenes in ``Measure for Measure,'' playing a perpetually tipsy criminal who is pardoned at the end of the play. Veteran community performer Paul Johnson takes the role of Escalus, right hand man to the ruler, and WHRO radio personality and former reviewer Tim Morton has the comic role of Pompey, a barman and pimp.

Hite and Johnson are both top notch, but Morton turns in the crowd-pleasing performance of the show. He's energetic, funny, broad and thoroughly at home on the stage.

The set design by Jerald Pope has opened up the Wesleyan playing area with an attractive, mottled and multileveled stage with just a statue of justice in the background. Changes of place, time and mood are left to Michael Simmerman's lighting design, which serves the play well. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

WHEN & WHERE

WHAT: ``Measure for Measure,'' by William Shakespeare

WHEN: 8 p.m. today and Saturday

WHERE: Virginia Wesleyan College in the Hofheimer Theater

TICKETS: $8 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens. For

reservations call 455-5700.

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