Genesius Guild presents “Peace" at Lincoln Park
Genesius Guild closes out its summer season with its annual comedy, this one being Aristophanes' Peace, directed by Jacob Lund and adapted by Calvin Vo and T. Green.
The play begins with two unnamed, unpaid interns (Josef Bodenbender and Rodrigo Guevara) rolling a pile of dung together for a dung beetle. They are interrupted by the master of the house and story protagonist Trygaeus (Marc Nelson). Trygaeus is upset that there’s war and chaos in the world, so he decides to take up the issue with management, e.g. Zeus and his pantheon of gods. However, when he arrives at the home of the gods, no one’s home save Hermes (also Bodenbender), the god of animal husbandry, and Ares (the charming Juno King), the god of war. Also, the god of peace (Storm Marie Baca) has been thrown into a pit, a Greek chorus enters, and then there are several weddings. A lot of the action follows Aristophanes' original text. The rest is decidedly in the style of Vo and Green.
Genesius Guild offers a type of theatre found nowhere else in the Quad Cities: classical in the park. There’s a veneer of education, as Guild offers shows in which people can see an approximation of the outdoor communal affairs these types of plays used to be. The costumes are classical, the (other) Greek productions are largely performed in mask, and acting in – and frequently against – the elements is key. It’s a nice opportunity for people to come out and learn something about theatre. In this case, Peace taught me that farce doesn’t have to be funny.
Sure, there’s certainly an attempt at humor, and I will admit I laughed a handful of times throughout Saturday's hour-long production. That being said, I was often the only one laughing, as Vo and Green have crafted jokes fit for people of our shared generation but are at least several decades removed from the age of the average Genesius Guild patron. One of my evening's consistently enjoyable elements involved a couple who sat a couple rows in front of me, and who kept leaning over to one another to try and decipher references such as ChatGPT, podcast culture, and even Bensen Boone (“Who’s Barney Boone?’”) Beyond being a suboptimal fit for the audience, this Peace script also seemed at odds with the actors available, as there were not one but three parody songs given to performers of less-than-ideal vocal strength and/or confidence. And the story's action was often hard to follow; I couldn’t really tell what was happening or why, even with the frequent fourth-wall breaks in which characters “explained” it all.
I do want to stress that the script was not the sole culprit behind my disdain, and there are some decent punchlines, even if they didn’t often land with Saturday's opening-night crowd. The other driving force was the direction. As Peace was their directing debut, I’ll cut Lund some slack, and could at least see the idea of what was trying to be conveyed; there's promise for their directorial future. Case in point, at the top of the show, there’s a chest laid bare, overflowing with weapons. Edwin Starr’s anti-Vietnam anthem “War” begins playing, and the ensemble crosses the stage one by one, grabs a weapon, strikes a pose, and exits off the opposite side of the stage. There’s the possibility of something good happening here.
But on Saturday, everyone entered at a glacial pace, walked with no real urgency or speed, and only half-heartedly struck their poses. The routine wasn't delivered in time to the music, and it wasn't fueled by the music – it was simply something that happened while music played. With a little more focus, this could've been a strong opener; instead, it was just simply there. However, it did serve as a strong hint of what was to come, as entrances throughout were often slow (or late), and then scenes would trot along at a gentle pace until they ended. I saw what was being attempted, and commend the cast and director for trying, but the results left a lot to be desired.
The production's technical elements, meanwhile, were a really mixed bag. The lighting was minimal but inoffensive, and designer Shannon Ryan's costumes boasted a charming blend of classical and modern looks. Plus, the stage flats were adorned with striking images of pop-culture iconography.
However, the show's sound really drove me up the wall. For one thing, I got the impression that only the stage-left speaker was working. For another, there was an ongoing comic bit in which characters were censored as they were about to swear. Trygaeus, for example, would say, “What a real piece of – !“ and then a beep would cut him off. The “beep” cues, though, were often late, undermining the joke, and even more infuriatingly, the joke itself was repeated ad nauseum; it started off not funny and descended into actively annoying. And for yet another sound issue: It wasn’t even the freaking right kind of “beep”! It was the beep you hear in blooper reels in between cut sequences, not the “beep” you hear on TV when someone swears when they shouldn’t.
But I suppose I should end this review on a high note. So. The nicest thing I can say about Peace is that with Genesius Guild’s free admission, you at least get what you pay for.
Genesius Guild's Peace runs in Lincoln Park (1120 40th Street, Rock Island IL) through August 3, and more information is available by visiting Genesius.org.
