This surprisingly engrossing two-person interaction is mostly a series of meetings and lessons between a rebellious young male graduate student and an aging, unpopular female professor of Shakespeare studies. The meetings take place in the book-cluttered first-floor apartment that “Prof” lives in – mostly in her combination living room and office, where she sometimes eats and often sleeps on the divan.

Left: Luke Humphrey (Murph) in ‘Taking Shakespeare.’ All photos by Tony Hauser. artes fine arts magazine

“Murph,” a wary, sullen man in his early twenties, has accepted his mother’s ultimatum that he take a personal study in Shakespeare with this woman in order to remain, supported, in his mother’s house because he feels unready and uninterested in immediately going on to post-graduate study. His mother is dean of the college, actually now Prof’s boss; but Prof was his mother’s favorite teacher and really liked his mother as a student. We learn later that the Dean has a more devious motivation for setting up this informal course.

As any good teacher will tell you, the professor and student learn a good deal from and about each other; and these two are drawn out of their defensive postures and develop a guarded affection for one another. After reading Shakespeare aloud to each other and arguing, they decide, at his suggestion, that the focus of their sessions together will be a study of her favorite play of Shakespeare’s, “Othello.” Then they refine the ultimate thesis of their study to be solving the question of Iago’s motivation: why he wants to destroy Othello.

Finally, Prof is going to be “let go” in the Dean’s Byzantine explanation of the professor’s status of ‘provisional tenure.’ And Murph—once he and Prof have not only “solved” the problem of Iago but also both found a new personal independence—has left his mother’s house and control and will stay in Prof’s now-empty apartment until the lease expires.

That’s all that happens, and all we see are their study-sessions together. But Murrell’s play is rich in ideas, as well as providing notes and encouragement for seeing “Othello,” which opens at Stratford several weeks after Taking Shakespeare did.

It’s a pleasure to see director Diana Leblanc return to Stratford; she is a master of contemporary drama. And this intimate production—though quite elaborately detailed in Michael Gianfrancesco’s designs and Itai Erdal’s complex lighting—is entertaining, thought-provoking, and affecting. Luke Humphrey, who is a dashing and adorable D’Artagnon in this season’s “The Three Musketeers,” here manages both empathetic appeal and sly comedy as Murph. And Martha Henry – who is, after all, not only one of Canada’s finest actors and directors, but also the master teacher who directs the Birmingham Conservatory of Classical Theatre at Stratford – is as perfect casting as the role of the Professor in this play is ever likely to get.

By Herbert M. Simpson, Contributing Writer

Taking Shakespeare

Total Rating **** (out of four)

July 13 to September 27, 2013

Stratford Festival of Canada

Studio Theatre

34 George Street East, Stratford, Ontario

1-800-567-1600

(519) 273-1600

www.stratfordshakespearefestival.com

Author: John Murrell

Directed by: Diana Leblanc

Cast: Martha Henry, Luke Humphrey

Technical:

Set and Costume Designer: Michael Gianfrancesco;

Lighting Designer: Itai Erdal;

ound Designer: Todd Charlton;

Dramaturge: Bob White