STAGE REVIEW : Lively Bard at the Grove : Aaron’s ‘Measure’ Fun and Deft Too

Pssstt.

There’s a well-kept secret in Garden Grove called the Grove Shakespeare Festival. It’s 12 years old, does some spirited Shakespeare and still not enough people have heard about it to fill the 550-seat open-air Festival Amphitheatre even on opening night.

Now into its second al fresco Shakespearean production of the current season--a vigorous “Measure for Measure” directed by Jules Aaron--it deserves much more attention than it’s getting.

Aaron’s staging, which opened Saturday, is an exuberant affair that often even lives up to its description as a comedy, despite the fact that, like its predecessor, “The Merchant of Venice,” it’s another of Shakespeare’s dangerous ones. While we are again dealing with a network of questionable motives and morality, this “Measure for Measure” is so vivid in its argument that it coats Angelo’s most recalcitrant acts of contrition with an almost believable layer of sincerity. And it makes the Duke’s dubious rationalization for his behavior seem downright logical--especially in Daniel Bryan Cartmell’s forceful performance.

That’s no small feat, for which the major thanks must go to Aaron, who lucidly guides this company through “Measure’s” murky debates on vice and virtue.

We cannot entirely condone the Duke of Vienna (as fictitious a place as Shakespeare’s Venice) for pretending to be absent in order to test the true character of his overly self-righteous deputy Angelo. And we don’t believe him when he says he’s doing this to also test the lapsed statutes of his city. (Who was it that let them lapse?) But when Angelo traps himself by falling in love with Isabella, offering to trade her brother’s life for her sexual favors, it is the Duke alone who brings Angelo down.

Or up, as Shakespeare might argue. But there are many obscure areas in “Measure for Measure”--the title tells it all--in which to sink a so-called principle.

With the exception of Richard Hoyt Miller’s condemned Claudio (more sullen than anguished), there’s not a character here who is less than ardent. You might not always agree with the line of reasoning, but you’ll have a hard time resisting the conviction.

Most powerful of the lot is Kamella Tate’s striking Isabella--a forthright, self-assured young woman, bristling with honesty and unacquainted with timidity. Her feelings are raw and evident in a confrontational performance that is all grit and exposed nerves.

So strong is she that Ron Campbell’s Angelo is all but wiped away. The nasty schemer seems to be alien territory for this otherwise admirable actor, who succumbs to playing petulance instead of cool, finding only in the final scenes the controlled emotional foothold that eludes him earlier on.

Aaron saves his best monkey business for that bounder Lucio (a madcap performance by David Anthony Smith, whose ebullience nearly steals the show) and those earthy rustics: the bungling constable Elbow (Matthew Walker), his prisoner Pompey (Scott Allen), barkeeper for Mistress Overdone (C. Daley Aguilar), the madam at the local brothel, and the foolish, drunken Froth (Donald Sage Mackay). The physical humor is extremely witty and, to match the words, never far from raunchy.

In the balance of the company, Carl Reggiardo delivers a restrained and dignified Escalus, Rebecca Marcotte shows class as the betrayed Mariana, and Elizabeth Dement is the appropriately meek, self-effacing and very pregnant Juliet, betrothed of Claudio.

Probably as a bow to tight economics, the angular spare set with pivoting panels by Don Llewellyn is the very same one that was used in last month’s production of “Merchant.” Only the cosmetics are changed. This makes us admire its versatile simplicity more.

The entire excellent production and design team is also the same, and much of the core acting company, which only adds other levels of interest to the experience. While this is not a rotating rep--although it easily could have been--there is endless fascination in watching the same actors face the challenges of different roles.

How unsettling, then, that the backdrop to this high-caliber artistic season is the Grove’s perpetual wrangling over funding problems. Grove Shakespeare founder and artistic director Thomas Bradac abruptly resigned this month in a dispute with the board over these matters--ironically, on the heels of his most impressive artistic success to date: his eloquent staging of “Merchant.”

However this bad business--pun intended--is resolved, the summer’s high level of artistic achievement continues uninterrupted. But it begs an audience.

Tonight, Aaron, who currently serves as acting artistic director, is presenting a collage of songs, sonnets and scenes from Shakespeare in an effort to raise some dollars. It’s only a part of the solution, but Sally Kirkland, Salome Jens, David Birney, Joan Van Ark, Roscoe Lee Browne and others are donating their talent to this “Midsummer Night’s Eve.” Remember: No money, no audience, no play.

‘Measure for Measure’

Daniel Bryan: Cartmell Vincentio, the Duke

Ron Campbell: Angelo

Carl Reggiardo: Escalus

Richard Hoyt Miller: Claudio

David Anthony Smith: Lucio

Darin Singleton: Provost

Matthew Walker: Elbow

Donald Sage Mackay: Froth

Scott Allen: Pompey

Kamella Tate: Isabella

Rebecca Marcotte: Mariana

Elizabeth Dement: Juliet

C. Daley Aguilar: Mistress Overdone

Roger Christofferson: Friar Peter

Faith Jackson: Francisca, a nun

A Grove Shakespeare Festival presentation of Shakespeare’s play. Director Jules Aaron. Sets Don Llewellyn. Lights David C. Palmer. Costumes Lyndall L. Otto. Makeup and hair design Gary Christensen. Composer Chuck Estes. Sound John Fisher. Stage manager Nevin Hedley.