Inland Classical Theater brings French comedy ‘The Triumph of Love’ to outdoors MAC amphitheater stage

When he was a director-in-training, Scott Doughty considered theater director Stephen Wadsworth a hero.

So taken with Wadsworth’s work, Doughty would save up his money and travel across the state to see any Seattle production Wadsworth was part of. On one of those visits to Seattle, Doughty and a friend saw an “absolutely obscure, long, extinct French play” called “The Triumph of Love,” which Wadsworth had translated.

“This was so formative for me, just sitting there spellbound at this story,” Doughty said. “It’s funny, it’s romantic. The language is absolutely beautiful. It rides this line between being a big physical farce, and then it’ll slip into poetry, and it’s simply beautiful. I fell in love with the script then and there.”

Doughty directed “The Triumph of Love” two decades ago and said, though it went well, he’s kept up with the story over the years, including reading every translation he can get his hands on and watching the film adaptation. He has been itching to direct the show again with more experience under his belt.

It was perfect then that Inland Classical Theatre Artistic Director Abby Burlingame reached out to Doughty and asked him if he had ideas for a non-Shakespearean classical text that would work well produced outdoors.

Burlingame was unfamiliar with the story before Doughty suggested it and said she can count on one hand the number of people who recognized the title when she mentioned it as a potential production but said everyone who has read it has liked it.

“It’s something new, but it’s definitely worth adventuring out into a new text,” she said.

“The Triumph of Love” was written by Pierre de Marivaux and premiered in 1732. The comedy begins with Léonide (Abby Constable), who is princess of Sparta, planning to disguise herself as a man named Phocion in order to enter the home of Hermocrates (Steve Lloyd), a philosopher who happens to be her enemy.

Léonide has fallen for Agis (Ali Aboud), who lives in the household. Agis is the rightful heir of the late Cléomènes, King of Sparta, and Léonide is determined to restore him to the throne.

Before she can seduce the man of her dreams, Léonide must keep her stories straight with Leontine (Deborah Marlowe), who believes Léonide’s male persona Phocion is in love with her, and Hermocrates, who believes Léonide, calling herself Aspasie, is in love with him.

The play also stars Jaz Vega, Jeffrey St. George and Max Quintal. The production opens Friday at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and runs through June 28.

“The Triumph of Love” was a great fit for the MAC’s outdoor amphitheater as the play is set in a garden, meaning the amphitheater itself could do a lot of the scenic design work.

Burlingame said the MAC team were enthusiastic about the idea, and she hopes this production can bring some of the Inland Classical Theater audience to the MAC and vice versa.

Producing a show outside can mean a choice between fighting the elements or seeing potential obstacles as opportunities. After walking through the amphitheater, the Inland Classical Theater team took the latter route.

Instead of making set pieces that would need to be bolted down, they painted trees and other greenery on fabric, allowing the breeze that blows through the space to move the fabric as a breeze would move real trees.

Making sure the actors’ voices could be heard outside was also part of rehearsal considerations, but Doughty said the nature of the comedy lends itself well to a larger play style.

“Rather than compete with that, it’s a gift,” Doughty said of the outdoor location. “It makes everything better, makes everything more live, more dynamic.”

A work of commedia dell’arte, a comedy tradition which comes out of Italy, “The Triumph of Love” features actors wearing masks. Burlingame hasn’t worked with masks herself and said Inland Classical Theater Executive Director St. George has really taken the lead on creating clowning bits and fun physical moments with his fellow zannis, or trickster characters.

“There’s a certain quality in an actor, especially in a comedic actor, in a fun way, they’re a little dangerous,” Doughty said. “When they walk on stage, there’s a little tingle, and you can feel the whole audience go ‘What’s about to happen? What is this maniac about to do?’ My zannis have developed that quality, because when the masks come on stage, something crazy is about to happen, and it’s just delightful. It’s so fun.”

The comedy of “The Triumph of Love” makes it perfect for the summer, Burlingame believes, even more so given it follows Inland Classical Theater’s production of “Mary Stuart,” a historical play which recounts the final days of Mary, Queen of Scots.

There is also a commentary on human nature in the play, with each character choosing to be vulnerable and opening up to a world of possibilities because of that choice, which she believes will resonate with modern audiences.

“Even if it doesn’t have a super topical, ripped-from-the-headlines engaging directly with something that’s going on in the world, it still is speaking to something that we still struggle with as people and as a society, which is opening up to each other,” she said. “But it does it in such a clever and engaging way, so it felt right, and it felt pressing to program it at this moment in time, because it’s for all ages. It feels like it’s of the past, but also, Wadsworth knew what he was doing. He definitely hits those touch points that make it still feel very modern and relevant.”