STAGE REVIEW : ‘FEVERSHAM’: SHADES OF SHAKESPEARE

The Globe Playhouse (never to be confused with San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre) is delving into Shakespearean apocrypha--plays that Shakespeare might have had a hand in. The latest is the anonymous “Arden of Feversham,” circa 1592.

Based on an actual murder, this is the Elizabethan equivalent of a juicy piece in True Detective Magazine. A wife and her boyfriend manage, after a series of almost comic blunders, to bump off her husband, but do not manage to avoid the long arm of the law.

“The House of Atreus” it isn’t. But murder is always of interest on the stage, and the play’s dialogue--whoever wrote it--is refreshingly plain, as opposed to the usual Elizabethan fustian. Andrei Serban did a cut-down version of “Arden” years ago at La Mama that had both style and pathos.

The Globe version is preceded by a dandy concert of silent-movie organ music. This suggests that director Bennett E. McClellan intends to have some fun with the melodramatics of the play. But his actors have nothing like the attack of the invisible organist, and the performance is no fun at all.

The root problem, not new at this address, is a general uneasiness in Elizabethan speech and dress. Rather than taking us into the world of the play, the actors are obviously still strangers here themselves, still practicing how to buckle on their swords.

Managing their props and their blank verse takes most of their energy. Where would they get the time to create a living, breathing, changing character? The best they can do is come up with some sort of stereotype, to which they grimly cling when the language gets obscure. The message is: I don’t know what this means either, audience: but I’m supposed to be a thug.

This isn’t enough for “Hamlet,” but it might work for a shilling-shocker like “Arden of Feversham,” given stereotypes of sufficient vigor. The cutthroat scenes at the Globe do make a noise, but McClellan’s dreary pacing discourages his actors from forgetting their inhibitions and getting into the swing of the play. Scene after scene trails off indecisively, where a “button” is needed--a note of emotion that will propel us into the next scene. We might be in the wan world of Maeterlinck.

If you have never seen “Arden of Feversham,” now is your chance; but you might be able to scare up a more exciting performance by sitting down with the text and imagining it. For the record, the cast includes Bruno Aclin as the unfortunate Arden; William Downe as his best friend; Melodee Spevack as his ill-natured wife; Michael Melvin as her apprehensive lover; Ed You as their chicken-hearted servant (this actor shows signs of enjoying what he’s doing) and Mark Ringer as a scurvy cutthroat named Shakebag. The last may be an inside joke, if Shakespeare did work on the play.

‘ARDEN OF FEVERSHAM’

An Elizabethan murder story, presented by the Shakespeare Society of America at the Globe Playhouse. Produced by R. Thad Taylor and Jay Uhley. Director Bennett E. McClellan. Assistant director Thomas Jefferson Cole. Costumes Libby Jacobs. Assistant costumer Cecilia Drivera. Lighting Ed Davidson. Fight choreography Melodee Spevack. Stage manager J. Michael Bryan. With Bruno Aclin, Lyda Anderson, William Downe, Melodee Spevack, Philip Winterbottom, Ed You , Michael Melvin, Joe Costanza, Robert Phillips, Edward Blackoff, Mark Ringer, Dana White, Ted Faye, Richard Neil, Johnson Burt, Cary Allison, Angela Cox, Kathie Danger, Michael Morrow, Michael Kelly. Plays at 8 p.m. Wed.-Sun. through Sept. 1. Tickets $10.50-$12.50. 1107 N. Kings Road. (213) 654-5623.