{"id":9969,"date":"2022-08-25T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9969"},"modified":"2022-09-12T08:59:23","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T12:59:23","slug":"the-metromaniacs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9969","title":{"rendered":"The Metromaniacs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In case you thought \u201ccatfishing\u201d was a phenomenon enabled by the anonymity of the Internet, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey<\/a> is here to disabuse (and amuse) you. The theater\u2019s second main-stage production this season is David Ives\u2019s wildly charming play, The Metromaniacs<\/em>, adapted from Alexis Piron\u2019s 18th century French farce, La M\u00e9tromanie<\/em>, directed by Brian B. Crowe. \u201cMetromaniac\u201d means a person addicted to poetry\u2014think meter, as in metronome, not metropolitan\u2014and the plot is based on a real-life scandal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The action takes place in the yard of Francalou (Brent Harris), a wealthy playwright and poet. He\u2019s seriously annoyed at the critical reception his work has been receiving from some young upstarts and begins writing poems for Parnassus<\/em>, the local literary taste-setter, under the assumed name, Malcrais de La Vigne. His fictional Breton poetess becomes the toast of Parisian literary circles, though no one has actually met her, and Francalou\u2019s biggest critic\u2014would-be poet Damis (Christian Frost)\u2014falls in love with La Vigne, sight unseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Damis and his long-time friend Dorante (Ty Lane), who knows nothing about poetry, are incognito for various reasons. Dorante wants to woo Francalou\u2019s romantically-inclined and poetry-loving daughter, Lucille (Billie Wyatt). He haltingly pretends to be poetic, only to see Lucille briefly wooed away by Damis\u2019s servant, Mondor (Austin Kirk). Lucille\u2019s maid Lisette (Deshawn White) has mischief up her sleeve too, and convinces Mondor that she is actually Lucille.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could go on, but it may be sufficient to quote David Ives\u2019s 2015 introduction to the play: \u201cThe Metromaniacs<\/em> is a comedy with five plots, none of them important.\u201d While the details of the plots are frothy as meringue, the skills of the actors (also including John Ahlin, who plays a judge intending to straighten out his nephew Damis) are such that you keep everyone straight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ives\u2019s work is a witty, nonstop display of literary fireworks. The dialog is written in rhyming couplets, and before you think that might become tedious, it doesn\u2019t. The rhymes are so inventive and the wordplay so apt that you can almost forget the degree of artifice. The entire cast enters into the antic spirit and embellishes the worldplay with entertaining physical comedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seven characters are themselves rehearsing one of Francalou\u2019s plays, involving suspiciously similar characters, akin to a hall-of-mirrors effect. And it gives Mondor several opportunities to claim \u201cI\u2019m not a servant, but I play one.\u201d And play he does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francalou\u2019s backyard, transformed into a stage set representing a woodland, is complete with painted cutout trees\u2014perfect for lurking behind or stashing prop pistols. And the costumes are beautiful, perfectly reflecting the characters who wear them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey productions are hosted at Drew University in Madison, N.J. (easily reachable from NYC by train). For tickets, call the box office at 973-408-5600 or visit the Box Office online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case you thought \u201ccatfishing\u201d was a phenomenon enabled by the anonymity of the Internet, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey is here to disabuse (and amuse) you. The theater\u2019s second main-stage production this season is David Ives\u2019s wildly charming … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A delightful French farce updated for the 21st century - on stage at The Shakespeare Theatre Center of New Jersey! ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[269,272,104,147],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-9969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actor","category-comedy","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-shakespeare-theatre-of-new-jersey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2AN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9973,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9969\/revisions\/9973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}