With onstage action fast and furious, and laughs aplenty, even rain couldn't keep audiences away from the opening weekend for Caltech's presentation of The Three Musketeers.
The sheer bravura fun of the production is no accident. Brian Brophy, director of both Theater Arts at Caltech (TACIT) and the play, brought in actor Lee Arenberg—noted for his turn as Pinel in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies—and professional fight-choreographer Victor Warren to help out. Brophy also brought his own sensibility to the script. The result is bouts of thrilling swordplay and athletic brawling as well as moments of laugh-out-loud comedy.
A carousing barroom scene draws spontaneous applause, as does one character's doozy of a demise that proves as hilarious as it is suspenseful. Winks and nods engage the audience by opening the theatrical "fourth wall," as when trumpets sound at the mention of D'Artagnan's name, or when nuns give themselves permission for a sip of pear brandy by noting that, somewhere in the world, it's five o'clock.
Deepening the play's color are the characters themselves. First among equals, of course, is D'Artagnan—brash and brave, swordsman extraordinaire from Gascony: seemingly the Brooklyn of France, one gets the impression. Standing beside him, one for all and all for one, are the Three Musketeers themselves: Athos, ambidextrous blade, philosopher, and fallen nobleman; Aramis, aspiring priest, charmer of ladies, and ace swordplayer; and Porthos, bluff, cheerful, clever with a sword, and not above the occasional sardonic aside to the audience.
Rounding out the cast are the mincing King Louis and his noble, beleaguered wife, Anne of Austria; the overweening and ambitious Cardinal Richelieu; Richelieu's right hand, the beautiful yet black-hearted Milady de Winter; Rochefort, leader of the cardinal's cutthroat guards; the fair Constance, aide to Queen Anne and love of D'Artagnan's life; D'Artagnan's sister, Sabine, whose heart belongs to Aramis when she isn't dueling cardinal's guards or Milady; and innumerable henchmen, courtiers, and tavern dwellers.
While the cast includes members from throughout the Caltech community, Brophy especially enjoys working with undergraduates and takes every opportunity to cast them. "Even as the undergrads were working out problem sets and homework backstage," he says of The Three Musketeers, "all of them improved on their performance every night and showed a level of commitment that proved vital to the success of the production."
Three plum roles went to freshmen, each of whom came to TACIT by a different path.
Karan Gupta hails from Delhi, India, and had experience performing in a couple of plays before he came to Caltech. Though planning to major in applied physics, he remained interested in acting. Before arriving on campus, he checked out the list of Caltech clubs online and signed up for the TACIT email list. The role of Basille, one of the cardinal's henchmen, is his first at Caltech. When not insulting D'Artagnan's horse, Basille engages in his share of swordplay. How did Gupta find the experience of working with fight-arranger Victor Warren? "Exciting," he says.
Alex Jose, who plays D'Artagnan, had performed in a production of A Chorus Line while at the Galloway School in Atlanta, Georgia, but at first didn't plan on acting when he came to Caltech. He initially intended to try out for the technical side of the production for The Three Musketeers, but on impulse auditioned for Porthos. Brophy decided he would make a better D'Artagnan. Jose admits that the rough-and-tumble of stage combat has its price: early rehearsals without kneepads left him with "knees older than my body."
His friend Raj Katti landed the role of Aramis. Though interested in acting in high school, he only tested the waters at Caltech, first in Big Love, last fall, and now with The Three Musketeers. He discovered TACIT one day after searching the Caltech website with the keyword acting. If staged swordplay has a treacherous aspect, in his view, it's the slippery heels on the boots. Hardly a rehearsal went by early on, he says, without someone at some point slipping.
Victor Warren, in his training of actors for stage combat, always stresses safety—the importance of eye contact and of communication. In the end it's all about creating the illusion of battle, murder, and sudden death. The player being run-through, punched, or thrown is the one always in control.
The hard work of the cast, under Brophy, Arenberg, and especially Warren, paid off in the end, with staged combat—to believe its participants—as exhilarating to perform as it is exciting to watch. When a comment was made at a fight rehearsal about how spectacularly the swordplay had come along, JPL spacecraft engineer Steve Collins (Athos) pointed at Warren and said, "There's the reason, right there."
A weekend of performances remain for anyone seeking an evening or afternoon's fun and adventure, rain or shine. Performances will be Friday, February 25, at 8:00 p.m., and Saturday, February 26, at both 2:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. There will be no performance Sunday.
Ticket prices at the door are $18 for general admission, $9 for Caltech/JPL employees and non-Caltech students, and $5 for Caltech students. There will be an additional service charge for credit-card purchases at the door and for online purchases through Brown Paper Tickets.
All performances will be in Ramo Auditorium on the Caltech campus. For further information, visit TACIT and Caltech Public Events.
Written by Michael Farquhar