"All for Fun, Fun for All!" Yes, it's a cliché, but anyone who's read The Three Musketeers knows that it is fun. And, however heroic and out for a good time they may be, the characters in the novel by Alexandre Dumas aren't necessarily the nicest guys in the world. Theirs was a time of "lax morality," Dumas assures us. But their hearts are virtuous, even when their behavior sometimes isn't, and saving Queen and France from the machinations of Cardinal Richelieu and Milady de Winter is their specialty.
Now Theater Arts at Caltech (TACIT), under the direction of Brian Brophy, is bringing the irresistible trio and their swashbuckling comrade-in-arms D'Artagnan to Ramo Auditorium on the Caltech campus. Working in tandem with professional fight-choreographer Victor Warren and actor Lee Arenberg (Pinel in Pirates of the Caribbean), Brophy aims to light up the stage with all the romance, gusto, and intrigue—not to mention swordplay—that made 17th-century France such fertile territory for Dumas's imagination.
The swashbuckling theatrical event is part of Brophy's program to expand TACIT's horizons. After three science-oriented plays in a row over the past two years, TACIT last fall produced Chuck Mee's comedy-romance Big Love, a reinterpretation of the Greek tragedy The Suppliant Maidens. Now it's the Musketeers' turn.
As always, Brophy has drawn on the entire Caltech community in casting the play. Undergrads, graduate students, faculty, staff from both campus and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and family of all of the above will be found in costume, with sword—or dagger, or poison, or scepter—in hand. Brophy has worked particularly hard to attract and cast undergrads.
"I love working with undergrads," he says. "One of my reasons for choosing this play was to provide opportunities in stage combat—sword fighting, hand-to-hand, you name it—free-flying fun, all in lush period costumes."
While starting with an established stage version for his script, Brophy has turned to Dumas's novel for bits of action and dialogue to add depth and authenticity. The play also offers expanded opportunities for female cast members. D'Artagnan's faithful valet Planchet, for instance, is in reality his spirited sister, Sabine, one spectacular swordplayer herself.
So it's "All for One, and One for All!"
And, seriously, all in fun!
The Three Musketeers will be performed Friday, February 18, at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, February 19, at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday, February 20, at 2:30 p.m. The following weekend, 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 will be $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.
Written by Michael Farquhar