Actors Truly Challanged By ‘Royal Gambit’

“Royal Gambit,” Through May 13 at Spokane Civic Theatre’s Firth Chew Studio Theatre; call 325-2507

A tremendous amount of admirable work goes into “Royal Gambit,” a 1958 German play of ideas that became an intellectual sensation on both sides of the Atlantic.

William Marlowe is a good choice to play King Henry the VIII. He has the voice and the acting skill to be a commanding presence, and he looks the part. The women who play his six wives also do some fine work.

What makes this play so ponderous, then?

I’ve been trying to figure that out. This play has one of the most tedious first acts that I can remember, although, thankfully, the second act has more spark.

The Hermann Gressieker script (translated by George White) is the main culprit. It combines the stiffest aspects of a “Masterpiece Theatre” costume drama with the pretentious theorizing of a bad philosophy lecture.

The characters have the burden of not being humans, but of being symbols in a rhetorical debate. Henry represents Modern Thought (or something like that) and each wife represents some aspect of philosophy (faith, for instance).

Here’s a brief example of the dialogue: Kate: “If mankind, split as it is by ideologies in two armed camps, is governed by the belief in the supremacy of reason, then where, in all this enlightenment, remains … man.”

Henry: “That’s what the struggle is about. Look what is happening to man in the East.”

There is nothing wrong with a historical costume drama that is also a play of ideas. Three of my favorite plays of all time are “Becket,” “The Lion in Winter” and “A Man for All Seasons.” However, in those plays, the symbolism and ideas grow out of the characters. In this play, the characters exist only to mouth the ideas.

Director Marilyn Langbehn is hard-pressed to give this stiff, pretentious dialogue any spark whatsoever in the first act. However, the beginning of the second act shows what this play could be. Marlowe and Malie Peterson (who is wonderful as Anna of Cleves) engage in a witty, light-hearted exchange filled with nuance and meaning. Suddenly, it becomes easier to stay awake. Both Marlowe and Peterson are clearly more comfortable with humor than with delivering pronouncements.

This play is an extreme challenge for actors, filled as it is with interminable monologues. I have nothing but admiration for the cast. They pull this off with dedication and professionalism.

Fine performances came from Marianne McLaughlin as a strong Anne Boleyn, Fay Gano as a devout Katarina of Aragon, and Valerie Harper-Murdoch as the knowing and intelligent Kate Parr.