Brightest Young Things

The production of "Two Gentlemen of Verona" currently on stage at Shakespeare Theatre Company opens with a posse of young men dressed in skinny jeans and green converse drinking beers to the tune of Ben Fold's "Zak and Sara." It immediately promises an accessible and relevant take on the lesser-known comedy.

As the story unfolds, however, the interpretation becomes as incoherent as it is enjoyable. The production never quite decides how to reconcile its tongue-in-cheek modern staging with the story's archaic plot twists. As a result, an inconsistency of vision unmoors the audience and distracts from the play's occasional truths.

Even if you've never read "Two Gentlemen of Verona," you know this story. You've laughed at these jokes. Two young men named Valentine and Proteus finish their studies, break away from family and expectations, and set-off to see the world. You root for them and the heady promise of their freedom for a second. That is until predictably -- both for Shakespeare and Hollywood -- their finicky vision flits from the horizon to their lust for the same woman. They break out their own box of charms. They fight. They realize they are buffoons. They remember the love of the women they left behind. They partake in a passionate bro-hug. And curtain.

Shakespearean comedies can be a tricky beast to interpret and present. It's a testament to the creative production and the skill of the actors that this comedy is so accessible. Snarky commentary ticks across an electronic screen above the stage, subtly unraveling some of the bard's more confusing and esoteric turns of phrase. Even the nods to modern times -- from the hipster dress to the pop songs -- succeed for the most part in placing the story within a context we can understand. This story of friends finding themselves and their friendship along the way echoes our generation's comedic sensibilities.

However, instead of situating the story entirely within this modern framework, the staging insists on a more complicated vision. And it would succeed if all the threads tied up; if the contradictory statements cohered into a whole. Through atemporal costume and setting, the staging seems to insist that the story's gendered-visions of freedom transcend from Shakespeare's times to the present.

The play, however, never quite succeeds in achieving the expectations it sets up for itself. With jeans and cardigans outfitted in such a way as to seem somewhat old-fashioned, the mens' costumes are confusingly without a generation as reference point. The women dance across the stage in dated ball gowns. Comprised of tiers of metal with giant pop art advertisements, the setting is both entirely contemporary and completely generic. It's clear that the directors are trying to say something about gender roles and how time passing hasn't entirely corrected their contradictions. Yet, instead of offering nuance, the staging confuses. We know they're trying to say something, but it's just not entirely clear what.

This is a staging with charm and substance and talented actors who make spinning contemporary laughs from Shakespeare's phrasing seem like a walk in the park. That the play resists pinning the story into a clear frame of reference is a caveat but not a warning. You should still go see this play and laugh the night away.