La Bete
cast list
Lisa Joyce, Greta Lee, Robert Lonsdale, Deanne Lorette, Joanna Lumley, Michael Milligan, Stephen Ouimette, David Hyde Pierce, Steve Routman, Mark Rylance, Liza Sadovy, Sally Wingert
directed by
Matthew Warchus
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Few plays can sustain the conceit of rhyming throughout as well as David Hirson in his rather impressively composed La Bete, now revived in a production directed by the current theatre scene's master of farce, Matthew Warchus (Boeing-Boeing, The Norman Conquests, God of Carnage).
The play is composed entirely in rhyming couplets, presenting the story of Elomire (David Hyde Pierce), a playwright in France in 1654 who is the court dramatist for The Princess (Joanna Lumley), who has sent the foolish street performer-cum-playwright Valere (Mark Rylance) to visit Elomire in the hopes that they might collaborate as part of her troupe.
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Rylance is the reason to see La Bete. One of Britain's foremost actors (this production began in the West End before transferring to New York), Rylance's performance is imbued with all the most disgusting mannerisms and sight gags imaginable (including wiping his backside with book pages, burping, farting, etc.), but manages, through his control of the play's topsy-turvy line construction, to impress as much as it offends.
Rylance's Valere (the beast of the play's title) is a complete buffoon. Proclaiming his love of "verbobos" (his word for words), Valere is the writer behind a great number of plays, but the devising of these plays seems to have made him none the wiser.
Hyde Pierce is as impressive as he's ever been, playing the straight man to Rylance's Valere with his signature arched brow and well-considered line readings. He's matched by Joanna Lumley as the Princess, whose stiff-upper-lip Britishness made her a success on Absolutely Fabulous and make her the perfect choice for a role like this one, which requires both a royal's command of the stage and a comic experts ability to quip. It's Hyde Pierce's entreaties to the Princess and her alternation between reason and stubbornness that lend the play's second half its energy.
The play, which is funny throughout, is mostly a throwaway piece. Dealing with the duality between reason, as embodied by Elomire (an anagram of Moliere) and Valere, whom the Princess reveals she plucked directly from the street, thinking she'd found a first-rate performer, the play stays very much on the ground rather than soaring, despite its playwright's flights of fancy. Attempts to politicize the plot by including references to French politics are muddled at best.
As the play continues and we find ourselves watching the troupe of resident court actors performing Valere's political farce, the proceedings grow tiring and a swift end begins to seem desirable. Despite fine performances and witty direction from Matthew Warchus, as well as appealing bookcase sets by Mark Thompson, La Bete has only occasional moments of hilarity. The rest of the time is mostly good but never quite great, unfortunately.
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New York reviews
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Three Sisters, Classic Stage Company
The Piano Lesson, Yale Repertory Theatre
The Momentum, Laurie Beechman Theatre
The Walk Across America for Mother Earth, La MaMa E.T.C.
John Gabriel Borkman, BAM Harvey Theater
Blood From a Stone, Acorn Theatre
Malfi, Inc., Theatre 54
Pieces, 59E59 Theaters
A Delicate Balance, Yale Repertory Theatre
The Memorandum, Beckett Theatre
The Scottsboro Boys, Lyceum Theatre
Driving Miss Daisy, Golden Theatre
Futura, TBG Theatre
La Bete, The Music Box Theatre
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
A Life in the Theatre, Schoenfeld Theatre
In Transit, 59E59 Theaters
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