UMKC "King Stag" review by ChaimEliyahu

The King Stag: Ruling the Stage

Rating: 5

The King Stag

UMKC Theatre

This is a fabulous production! If you still have a chance, time's a-wasting, and there's no need to read further:  just go, and we can talk about it later.

Unfortunately, I just saw it last night, and you have only Saturday night at 7:30 and Sunday at 2 to catch it yourself.  I hope you will (have).



The staging is marvelous.  Scenic designer Megan Gross, costume designer Aaron Chvatal lighting designer SeifAllah Cristobal and sound designer Joseph Concha, with Aaron Roose as tech director, have created a magical world in UMKC's theater. The Palace of Roncislappe and its environs in the oriental Kingdom of Serendip magically spring to life before our eyes, transforming by the moment through the wonders of simple design, light and sound. Unlikely and magical transformations and unbelievable exchanges among the characters are rendered visible, believable and mind-blowing in their implications in dramatic flashes. And the gorgeous costumes provide such animated humor that it's amazing to find how well they work in the show's deeper moments.

And there are many of these. Carlo Gozzi's 18th century play is no trifle, however delightful, funny and entertaining. Its messages are deep and complex in the best tradition of the fairy0-tale form at which Gozzi excelled. Carl Wildman's translation from the Italian sounds contemporary and authentic.

But this production also has a big, dynamic, beating heart, thanks to a great company of UMKC actors. I must admit — though I'd already been blown away by the excellence of last spring's socially insightful "Slammed! KC Speaks Out on the Recession" — that I felt a little trepidation as I drove off to see a "college production." From the opening scene, we know we are in the hands of a very fine ensemble of actors.

And this means we are in the hands of a pair or very fine directors, for ensembles just don't grow on trees.  This year's Charlotte Street Foundation Generative Performing Artist-fellow Stephanie Roberts (who also directed "Slammed!") and UMKC's Patricia McIlrath Endowed Professor and head of acting Theodore Switz have crafted a show that just doesn't stop. Her commedia dell-arte and his Shakespearean background are strongly evident as their company engages us with collective and individual physical humor, strongly delivered witticisms, and moving emotional speech. The interplay of actors and stagecraft could not have been better conceived and managed.

And then there are the actors. This company displays surprising depth on the bench. There were no weak links in the entire chain of recombining, interactive players, depicting a panoply of character types, from the sublime to the ridiculous, with the melodramatic in between. Each and every performer played their parts to the max, winning well-deserved and enthusiastic audience response.

You need to join this audience. "The King Stag" is a fairy tale that will live on in your memory, colorful, fantastic and moving.

read the review at KC Stage