Tug Of War

The Getty Villa is once again sponsoring roman comedy in its gorgeous Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theatre and hilarity rules, TUG of WAR is based on the Plautus play RUDENS here delightfully translated by Amy Richlin. and reshaped and tweeked by the director Meryl Friedman. Many, many times the result can be mildly amusing or even vulgarly hilarious but usually it never quite works and the attempts to make it hip. Modern, truly funny fall flat on its roman arse: Not here.  This is a terrific evening in the theatre with a terrific funny cast and some lovely music and fun choreography. All the action takes place on a raised woodened platform in the center of the Getty Villa’s outdoor theatre. There are no stage tricks here, just good theatre. My favorite bit however takes place off the platform further up at the mighty pillars where Vinita (a wonderful drag performance by Bob Beuth) has an encounter with the pillars which made the audience roar. The whole company of actors, Peter Van Norden as the slave Scupus, Steve Totland as the spokeman for the play and another comic servant (Deltoidus), the charming rogue Bigbuxus , wonderfully played by Albert Meijer, Antoine Reynaldo Diel as a pimp, Jill Klein in a dual role as pimp- in- training and priestess ,Cortney Wright as Liplocca the sexy heroine, and Curtis C. as Arcturus/valorus ,  have a great time with this material and the audience cheers filled the summer sky.  GO SEE THIS

J.PAUL GETTY VILLA  in Pacific Palisades 310 440 7300 www.getty.edu
Until Sept 29