What qualities mark a man for greatness and how does someone rise above their station in life to conquer the world, even just for a short time. Or are some destined to rise to the top as if they are at the mercy of destiny.
The Peterborough Players’ production of George Bernard Shaw’s “The Man of Destiny,” which opened Wednesday, lays those questions out there for the audience.
The man of destiny in the play is Napoleon Bonaparte, a cutthroat general in the French army shorty before his rise to power in the newly born Republic. He quickly rose to prominence during the French Revolution, and ultimately became Emperor of France.
Shaw’s play is short and sweet and will leave you with something to think about on issues ranging from class and rank in society to the role of women as well as the role of truth, goodness and duty in a successful life or war campaign.
The play takes place at an inn in the Italian countryside after the Battle of Lodi and involves missing correspondences and a mysterious woman.
So much of the play hinges on the two leads, Tom Frey as Napoleon and Bridget Beirne as the mysterious lady, and they deliver.
Frey and Bierne’s banter is electric, pulling you deeper into the story and their internal conflicts, which hurl them towards increasing intimacy and the audience closer to the truth.
The production puts the livestock in summer stock with appearances from local chickens Parmesan and Marsala.
While adding to the rustic Italian inn aesthetic, Parmesan and Marsala are a bit of a distraction. I found myself intensely observant of the birds, waiting to see if they would fly at the audience. They did not.
Kraig Swartz’s innkeeper character shoos the poultry off stage early in the play, but then proceeds to steal as much of the show as he can. His innkeeper brings a simple wit and humor to the sometimes intense conflict of the show.
Swartz along with Will Champion, who is hilarious as a dimwitted Lieutenant, are a tour de force of comic relief in “The Man of Destiny.”
Though an upper class French man, Champion’s Lieutenant answers to his commanding officer, Napoleon who was the son of a financially ruined Corsican aristocratic.
The real question to ponder in Shaw’s play, is did Napoleon fight and strategize his way to the top or was he merely a pawn in destiny’s game?
Second Company members Mikaela Edelman, Katie Shults, Emily Tenenbaum, Sean Casey Flanagan and Rickie Dupkin fill out the cast and provide the ambience of a quaint Italian village with the sound of their voices singing opera, Italian folk songs and French ditties.
“The Man of Destiny” opened Wednesday and closes Aug. 26.
Tickets are $42 and can be purchased online at www.peterboroughplayers.org or by calling the Box Office at 603-924-7585.