'LOVE'S FIRE' TACKLES RELATIONSHIPS

March 4, 2005
JAY HANDELMAN jay.handelman@heraldtribune.com

Shakespeare's sonnets have inspired all kinds of thoughts and feelings for more than 400 years.

They're also open to interpretation, which is where the fun of "Love's Fire" begins its creative spark. The production at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory is a collection of six plays by some of today's best writers, each inspired by a different sonnet.

For the acting students, "Love's Fire" provides a vast array of roles and styles, and for the audience, it offers a delightful assortment of ideas taken in mostly blissful, sometimes frustrating directions.

The production is beautifully staged by guest director Michael Unger, who brings out the best performances we've seen this season from the second-year students. But it's not for those easily offended, because it features partial nudity and frank and open discussions about love, relationships and sex in all its permutations.

Unger has split John Guare's "General of Hot Desire" into segments that open and close the production. The opening scene features an acting troupe poring over every book, even Cliff's Notes, to wring every possible meaning of each word in sonnets 153 and 154.

It's a fascinating and comically drawn look at what acting companies go through (we hope, at least) when they tackle Shakespeare's plays.

The second half is the result of that research, a curious piece that explores the meaning of God's relationship with humans and how we have developed either with his help or on our own.

The show's strongest and longest piece is Tony Kushner's "Terminating, or Lass Meine Schmerzen Nicht Verloren Sein, or Ambivalence." You won't feel ambivalent about the piece about a gay man (Ross Boehringer) and his lesbian psychiatrist (Natasha Staley), each dealing with psychosexual problems, mixed with personal relationships.

"Terminating" reveals Kushner's humor, wit and love of literary references and word play, and it's wonderful to see how he meshes them with Shakespeare's ideas.

Marsha Norman's intriguing "140" is a little like "La Ronde" in the way it portrays a circle of interconnected sexual affairs that launches a chain reaction of hurt and betrayal, led by Darlene Horne and Bryan Crossan.

Eric Bogosian's "Bitter Sauce" reveals a woman's twisted thoughts about love on the eve of her wedding, and Wendy Wasserstein plays up name-dropping, social-climbing attitudes in "Waiting for Phillip Glass," in which guests trade bon mots and casual insults about one another at a society fund-raiser.

And William Finn, the composer of "Falsettos," offers his twist on Sonnet 102 in "Painting You." Boehringer is an artist trying to capture his lover and nude model (Crossan) on canvas, as he sings an anguished song about how the parts he paints don't really capture the essence of the man.

But these pieces do capture the essence of Shakespeare's original works, each of which is read at some point.

Cathleen Crocker-Perry's costumes match the students' performances for variety, and James Florek's elegant set revolves to ease scene transitions. It also features a large scroll with one of the sonnets in Shakespeare's handwriting.

It may be difficult to decipher, but like the play itself, that's open to interpretation.

Love's Fire

One-act plays inspired by Shakespeare's sonnets by Eric Bogosian, William Finn, John Guare, Tony Kushner, Marsha Norman and Wendy Wasserstein. Directed by Michael Unger. Reviewed March 2 at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Through March 20. Tickets are $19 to $21, $12 for students. Call 351-8000.