How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Machiavelli
ArcLight Theatre
152 W. 71st St. (between Broadway and Columbus Avenue)
Niccolo Machiavelli coined the phrase "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer," declared that "the ends justify the means" and is often remembered as a conniving, power-hungry man. However, in Richard Vetere's new play, Machiavelli (James Wetzel) is cut down to size not by the Medici - despite their numerous, oafish attempts - but by a more dangerous force: his wife.
The dynamic between the brilliant philosopher-poet-essayist-politician and his even more brilliant counterpart is the play's most enchanting aspect. Marietta Corsini (Liza Vann) is a petite fireball whose whims and wiles keep the Italian court on their toes and the audience in stitches. She mocks her husband when he whines that he is a failure because - as she recites along with him here, rolling her eyes - "Alexander the Great conquered the world at the age of 24." But she still loves the man deeply, at times assuring him that he is great, and, at least in her eyes, a prince.
"Machiavelli" begins in 1513 at the height of the Renaissance, with the Medici torturing Machiavelli, dressed in rags, for alleged political treason. The prisoner is brought to Medici Prince Giuliano (Chip Phillips) for execution, but just as the prince raises his sword, Machiavelli warns him to beware of his nephew, Prince Lorenzo of Florence (Jason Howard). The clueless prince, intrigued and frightened, aborts the execution, instead imploring Machiavelli to advise and protect him, then pardoning and appointing him his right-hand man. In the next scene, Machiavelli is dressed in fine Italian robes behind a table of royal food and drink. The great political thinker has survived one coup d'etat, and will survive many more.
Princes Giuliano and Lorenzo are stellar in their comic opposition to the central character. Giuliano is a gullible and egotistical prince (think a less worthy Lancelot in "Camelot") easily buttered-up by Machiavelli's strategically placed flattery. Lorenzo is a brawny buffoon, a scarred war hero eager to kill and conquer. Howard's gruff and staccato voice is perfect for his childish tantrums complaining that he is not yet prince. He gets even more frustrated when speaking to Niccolo, who makes him think. ("I prefer doing instead of thinking," Lorenzo grunts. "I hated school - there was no one to kill.") Without these two characters, Machiavelli's calm wit and intelligence would not be as clear, nor would the evening be as entertaining.
"Machiavelli" brings to the surface the struggles of the well-known figure not known as much for his interaction with his family or his own internal struggles. The play dramatizes these theatrical notions in a comical and heartwarming way. Machiavelli's relationship with his oldest daughter (Stephanie Janssen) is a very tricky one, similar to that of most (theatrical) fathers and daughters, with the added complication that when his daughter asks his permission to marry, she is asking to marry the man who banished her father from Florence.
Nevertheless, Machiavelli is humanized in a highly unusual way. He says that he gets his ideas about people by going to pubs and having conversations, learning how to act from servants, women and children and how not to act from princes. Prince Lorenzo, he says, was the inspiration for a play in which he depicts people as greedy, vulgar and manipulative. Machiavelli's wit, wisdom and comedy make for an entertaining and educational night of theater, painting a picture of the man who knew and advised princes, but secretly wished to be The Prince.
