Alfred de Musset never intended "Lorenzaccio" to be seen on stage, and in his lifetime it never was. After his first full-length play, "La Nuit V?nitienne" ("The Venetian Night") was a tremendous failure, Musset rebelled against the theater. He began writing plays that were intended to be read rather than performed, which he called "Th??tre dans un fauteuil" - armchair theater.
At the time the play was written, "Lorenzaccio" was too politically controversial for French censors to allow the play to be produced. And with its 38 scene changes, near three-hour length, flamboyant emotional outbursts and meandering plot, it is difficult to direct, stage and act unless significantly adapted.
This is precisely the challenge undertaken by the Shakespeare Theatre, which it met with only mild success.
Ming Cho Lee designed a set that could be rearranged three ways by moving the walls. The first is a beautiful backdrop painted with images of the Duke of Florence talking to a cardinal and lined with cut-outs that worked perfectly with Howard Binkley's contrasting bright backlighting.
Unfortunately the other two sets, a smaller red room and an ugly red wall that blocks everything but the foreground (to allow for scene changes behind it) are too shallow to work with the depth of the events that occur. This, in addition with the rapid repetition of these three scenes throughout the play, makes the set dull and detracts from the play rather than contributing to it.
Fortunately, Murell Horton spices up the blankness of the set by costuming the characters in beautiful, period-appropriate garb, ranging from simple monochromatic tunics to the intricate and colorful clothing of the nobility.
"Lorenzaccio" centers on Lorenzo de Medici, who has befriended his cousin Alessandro de Medici, the Duke of Florence, in order to murder the duke, thus freeing the city and restoring the republic. Robert Cuccioli turns in a solid performance as the despicable Alessandro de Medici, showing the duke as not only a tyrannical ruler but also a man who was lonely (despite his many rendezvous with the women of the city) and afraid of being displaced from power.
Jeffrey Carlson is somewhat more erratic as Lorenzo de Medici, alternately appearing drunk, playful, in earnest, gay and just plain crazy. However, he handles the extremes of the unwieldy script reasonably well and is ultimately a believable character.
Unfortunately, the best characters appear for only a few minutes at the beginning and the end. They are Paolo (David Sabin) and his wife, Sofia (Kate Kiley) as wittily bickering silk merchants.
"Lorenzaccio" has some very amusing moments and lots of smart dialogue. Credit for this can probably be given to John Strand, who translated and adapted the play. There are several barbs thrown at the church and the government that were laugh-out-loud funny. Regrettably, this puts the audience in a silly mood and unprepared for the more serious scenes, which tend to come across as ridiculous in comparison.
Certain scenes work better than others. Lorenzo's conversations with the painter Tebaldeo (Aubrey Deeker) are gems of French Romantic thought. The scene immediately preceding the assassination bravely opens the possibility of a more-than-friendly relationship between Lorenzo and the Duke, where only innuendo existed before. Lorenzo's speech in the garden is the most difficult to stomach, as he madly raves about his desire to be Brutus to Alessandro's Caesar.
The play has a bleak ending, which, coupled with the complexity of each character's motives, has caused comparison to Shakespeare's "Hamlet," but these two plays should not be put in the same class. Musset, despite his desire, was certainly no bard.
