Wouldn't you know that right after the official opening night of a botched Shakespeare classic, a new version of an old hambone drama would get a Stratford production that looks like great theater? When I caught up with Marshall Borden's The Count of Monte Cristo, it was a hit show and a supremely polished performance.
Borden has condensed the huge Alexandre Dumas novel to playable length but maintained the best-known episodes and skillfully turned it into exciting theater. Director Andrey Tarusiuk keeps the complex action clear. He has designer Guido Tondino tone down his usual lavishly beautiful pictorial designs in favor of remarkably versatile sets that change persuasively in an instant from a ship in a sea storm to a colorful two-story inn, a man rowing up to a bleak dock, an official's office, the inside and outside of a forbidding prison, a treasure cave, and a luxurious ballroom. Blink, and we're somewhere else.
Two fine actors play "the Count" -- David Snelgrove as Young Edmond Dantes and Brad Rudy as Older Edmond, the Count of Monte Cristo. Dantes does age a lot in the 25 years in which he sailed as a First Mate, was appointed Captain, met Napoleon in exile, got arrested and held prisoner under terrible conditions, escaped death, found a treasure, became impossibly rich, gained revenge, love, a son, fought some nifty duels, and had adventures on several continents. Snelgrove later plays Dantes' son.
Dana Green matures into a more refined but no less beautiful heroine as Dantes' beloved Mercedes. A uniformly fine, very large cast includes Andy Velasquez and Donald Carrier, who get what humanity they can from the two chief villains. And Robert King and Andrew Massingham stand out as Dantes' longtime supporters.
The whole production is handsome. Francois St.-Aubin's authentically realistic costumes, Robert Thomson's richly varied lighting, and Berthold Carriere's beautiful original music help lift every scene to a higher level.
John Stead's climactic fight scene is a knockout, not merely literally. It's all unlikely, daydream stuff, but it's great escapist entertainment masterfully served up.
