‘Edward II’ Lacks Heartfelt Emotion

Paul Wagar’s modern-dress adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s “Edward II” whirls through the play’s lurid mess of murder royale. This Ark Theatre Company production features fine speechifying, but there are no interpretive undercurrents to illuminate timely parallels or what’s left of the text.

Edward II (Donald Robert Stewart) had homosexual longings for a lowly born Gascon, Gaveston (Ryan Gesell), which eventually led to both their murders. Although the press release indicates that this development begs for comparison with the passage of Proposition 22 and gay-bashing hate crimes, the production itself amplifies the class distinction.

Gaveston is first seen in worn jeans with aesthetically torn holes at the knees and sneakers. Edward and his court are dressed in business suits and power dresses. More than gay bashing, class snobbery is the issue.

Beyond kissing Gaveston in front of his court, Edward is shown as neither particularly stupid nor rebellious. There is no indication why he is so oblivious to the mounting threat of baronial power. His queen, Isabella (Roxanne Meyers), is played with straightforward indignation, but is she plotting with Mortimer (Zach Hanks) before they openly become lovers? Does she simply surrender to rumors or political need? Is Isabella the she-wolf of legends?

Under Wagar’s galloping pace as director, don’t expect answers. His script exchanges more than the thous and thys for modern pronouns. He collapses the Bishop of Winchester into the Bishop of Coventry (Mark Brandon Anderson), making the motivation of avenging past indignities against the king stronger, lessening the case for homophobia. Edward III, who appears in the original text in order to dole out justice, doesn’t show up at all here. Instead, the play ends with Isabella speaking of potential doom.

For a play about a royal menage a trois, this interpretation is more businesslike than heartfelt. Only when Edward is stripped naked and tied to what was once his throne, as he faces his executioner, does this play manage to unearth emotion. But waiting for the main character’s impending death to find life in a play is at best self-defeating.

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* “Edward II,” Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Saturday, May 19, 8 p.m.; May 21, 3 p.m. Ends May 21. In repertory with “Marks on the Water.” $18. (323) 969-1707. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.