APT's In Acting Shakespeare: Whose line is it anyway?
Carissa Dixon
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For all their new-car smell, websites like Twitter and Facebook are not so far removed from a moldy genre that’s existed for thousands of years: the memoir. There are obvious high-tech and 140-character differences, but at their cores, these vehicles are perfectly suited for non-famous people telling their stories to the world. James DeVita’s one-man play, In Acting Shakespeare (running at American Players Theatre's new Touchstone Theatre through September 5), is a memoir written for the stage, only with one gnarly caveat: DeVita uses the life of William Shakespeare as a framework on which to hang his own story.
It’s a tricky undertaking. For the play to work, DeVita’s autobiography first has to be interesting enough for strangers (even the partisan crowds that fill APT’s seats) to care, but even more, it can’t be overshadowed by the life story of the most famous writer in history. DeVita pulls it off by putting together an engaging work loaded with humor and frankness. And through it all, his own anecdotes are often more compelling than the life of the man he has spent his professional career honoring.
In Acting Shakespeare was adapted from Sir Ian McKellen’s similarly themed Acting Shakespeare. DeVita’s version is a mixture of Shakespeare’s greatest hits (and late in the show, DeVita barrels through snippets of all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays), both the reverent and irreverent reimagining of key moments in the Bard’s life, and the recounting of DeVita’s unlikely path to working in theater. It’s delivered on the sparest of sets, with the only props being a chair, cane, shoulder bag, and wooden box.
Like the best memoirs, the show doesn’t shy away from embarrassing moments. DeVita makes fun of his height, his spotty academic career (including a particularly funny story of how he was granted entry into his masters’ acting program and told, “You have the least ability of anyone we’ve ever accepted”), and his many struggles learning how to properly communicate Shakespeare’s language. It’s in the dissecting of language where DeVita elevates In Acting Shakespeare from a straightforward blow by blow of his life to a primer that helps explain the deeper mysteries of Shakespeare’s works.
Most people have clashed with Shakespeare at some point in their lives. Even though it deals with broad, universal themes, Shakespeare's work requires a very special performance to keep an audience engaged with its dense and ornate language. This has always been one of the great enigmas (and triumphs) of APT—how it’s been so successful drawing the unwashed masses to classical theater. Its unique venue plays a role, but there’s certainly more to it than better-than-average picnicking. APT’s Shakespeare productions are always inviting and non-threatening, and that has everything to do with its attention to language and commitment to connecting with its audiences.
By the end of DeVita’s performance, it becomes clear the story isn’t so much about his journey from gutting fish in Long Island to playing Macbeth, but rather one explaining how he learned to channel the very essence of Shakespeare’s words. As DeVita peels back layers to expose himself, he reveals he’s in many ways no different than anyone who’s ever watched him act. He, too, is both enthralled and beguiled by the same words that have captivated theatergoers for centuries. And it’s in the unvarnished retelling of his personal relationship with these words that he unveils the secret of acting Shakespeare, as much as there is one: All Shakespeare did was write us. So if we tell our own stories honestly and unflinchingly, then we will be able to understand Shakespeare’s work exactly as he intended.
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