Review: TEENAGE DICK at Pasadena Playhouse

Teenage Dick, a current streaming option from Pasadena Playhouse, filmed as a coproduction with the Huntington Theatre of Boston and Woolly Mammoth Theatre of DC is perfectly translated from the stage to the computer screen. It is exactly the kind of piece whose energy is so elevated for its 100 minute duration that we are able to appreciate its success as a performance without sharing within its four walls. Mike Lew's adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III reimagines the tragedy at a contemporary high school where the "creepy Renaissance-faire-talking weirdo" Richard is plotting to steal the upcoming election from current class president and beloved quarterback, Eddie.

There are immediate parallels to Jiehae Park's peerless, which reimagines Macbeth as a bloodthirsty pact between twin sisters to boost their chances at Ivy League acceptances. Where peerless has a natural give-and-take with the Shakespearean text- an understanding of the source material expands our understanding of the adaptation but is not a prerequisite to enjoying the play, and an approach to Park's work provides deeper insight into Shakespeare's characters- Lew settles for cheap in-jokes for those well-versed in the Bard's tetralogy. In-the-know audience members chortle to let us know they understand why the principal's office of Roseland High is referred to as "the tower" as Clarissa is sent there, sabotaged from running in the class election. The gags are fun, but they prevent Teenage Dick from succeeding as anything beyond a commentary, and unfortunately, the effect is that, aside from asides commenting on the political implications of Richard III's "villainous" physiognomy and Margaret's relegation to a mere plot device, the play does not expand our understanding of Shakespeare's work. We are left, instead, with a SparkNotes version of the original that includes a heavy dose of socially-informed commentary. The escalation of violence feels unfounded and comes in the eleventh hour without base.

Do we need to grapple with the political implications of Shakespeare's works if we want to keep producing them? Yes. But Lew struggles attempting to turn this piece into a morality play, and I believe the high school setting does him a disservice. After Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves and Clare Barron's Dance Nation, the bar has been raised for writing scripts about young people. Presenting them as vapid and naive so that older audiences can scornfully mock their preoccupations with social media or ignorance of John Hugh's oeuvre is so 2014. We are living in a theatre ecosystem post-Alexis Scheer's Our Dear Dead Drug Lord and Jocelyn Bioh's School Girls and, if one wants to tell stories about young people, it is inadvisable to ignore that fact. Heavy-handed warnings of the dangers of Twitter land as cheap, especially as, in engaging with the character of Richard as presented here, we counter, proving that throngs of modern people are capable of synthesizing nuance.

Speaking of nuance: Gregg Mozgala is so charming and silly as the eponymous Dick. He never shies away from weirdness, and he never tries to make us like him. His earnestness and charisma as he rattles off his knowledge of Machiavelli's The Prince win us over and keep us invested as Richard engages in actions ranging from misguided to questionable to downright dubious. It is not a "love-to-hate" villain that he creates, rather a conflicted young man we regret to see fall in and out of our good graces. Mozgala makes us root for a happy ending, even though his downfall was predicated and described for us as early as 1592. His performance deserves all the hype it gets and makes the Pasadena streaming option one to catch. Shannon DeVido is another distinct standout, lending a patented brand of wit and dryness to Richard's unwitting ally, Buck. Portland Thomas keeps us laughing with her overstated portrayal of Richard's "Bible-thumping" classmate Clarissa. Everything she does is huge but none of it lands as baseless or derogatory. I was lucky enough to catch her in BEDLAM's St. Joan a few years ago and, in this, found her entirely unrecognizable. She whines, berates, and throws tantrums that would be refreshing in a cast lineup for SNL, but there is evidently truth at the heart of the performance that guides its landing.

Streaming for Teenage Dick is available here until February 27.