"Lovers and Executioners" presented by Circle Theatre

LOVERS AND EXECUTIONERS
play program

The Travelling Toe and a friend attended the Saturday afternoon performance of "Lovers and Executioners" at Circle Theatre in the downtown area of Fort Worth.  The play was written by John Strand.

John Strand
playwright

The current play is based on a French play written by Antoine Jacob dit Montfleury,
 (1639-1685).

The following insight is from the playwright's notes published in the play program:

Infidelity. Murder.  Revenge.  Cross-dressing.  Men in high heels spouting poetry. There is a lot going on in France.  Or in the French theater anyway.  

A man discovers that his wife has been unfaithful to him.  He abandons her on a desert island expecting her to die, but uncooperatively, she survives.  Disguised as a man, she makes her way back to their village and manages to have herself appointed judge - then promptly brings her husband to trial for the murder of his wife.

Mr. Strand states that:

....set out to explore what changes jealousy and guilt work upon the husband and thirst for revenge upon the wife. The comedy sets up the more serious moments:  Can two lovers, each in turn, contemplate the other's execution and yet find a way to forgive and even love again?  A challenging proposition, four hundred years ago,  As it is today.

This was a fun play to watch.  The actors were in period costumes that were just beautiful. Kudos to the costume designer, Sharon Standard.  There is even some real sword work as part of the action, so would suppose a lot of practice was required to get all those lunges and foils just right.  The dialogue was all in rhyme. How do the actors memorized all those lines and words because if you forget something you just can't use another word you have to have a rhyming word.  The show ends on a question.  What is that question Dear Readers?  Well, go see the play and you will find out.  Seatmate and the Travelling Toe had several discussions about  it and we still are not totally sure which way to vote.......(who gets the rose at the end???)

The featured Cast is:

Eric Dobbins

Amber Marie Flores

Suzanna Catherine Fox

Marianne Galloway

Chad Gowen Spear

Shane Strawbridge

Richard Stubblefield

All the cast was wonderful but Shane as Guzman, a servant, was always so funny when he appeared on stage.  But it is hard to give a shout-out to just one actor when they did such a great job on the production.

Circle Theatre

Shane and Suzanne
in character as
Guzman and Beatrice
(from Circle Theatre's Facebook page)

Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes.