‘All’s Well That Ends Well’ opens at King’s College

In Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well,” the French king suffers from a malady that sounds not only unpleasant but downright embarrassing.

“Sometimes he’s waddling because he’s trying to hold ‘it’ in,” said Matthew Carr, who portrays the king in the show, which opens tonight, Nov. 14, in the Maffei Theatre at King’s College. “And we have sound effects.”

Maybe, because the king is enduring such royal, intestinal misery, you can understand the outrageous idea that if a certain young healer fails to cure him, her life is forfeit. But if she succeeds in bringing about a cure, the king agrees, she can marry anyone she wants. He’ll make it happen.

In this play, which marks the 75th annual Shakespeare production at King’s College, Helena does cure the king.

And she says she wants to marry Bertram, the wealthy young man whose mother, the Countess, raised Helena alongside her son.

Bertram goes through with the ceremony but says he won’t accept Helena as his wife unless/until she conceives his child and wears his ring. Then he rushes off without giving her a chance to try for either.

“In real life I wouldn’t want to be forced to marry anyone,” said Matt Bell, who plays Bertram and believes some audience members may sympathize with the young man while others sympathize with Helena.

“I think some will understand and some won’t,” Bell predicted. “It will be split right down the middle.”

His mother, the countess, loves Bertram and Helena equally, said Beth Powers, an adjunct professor in the theater department, who portrays the countess. But the character has great sympathy for Helena whom she describes as “just completely virtuous, and hard-working.”

Beth Powers’ husband, Jahmeel Powers, also an adjunct professor, is directing the show.

“This is Jahmeel’s second Shakespeare show,” Beth Powers said, adding that while the couple has worked together for years “this is the first time he’s directing me.”

“I love being able to take his vision and bring it to life, with all these incredible students,” Beth Powers said. “I could not be more blessed.”

Part of the vision was to give the play a 1930s feel, with Art Deco elements in the set and costumes from that era, nearly 100 years ago. Instead of the jester wearing a cap with bells, for example, look for a boater hat on Noah McGinnis’ head and, around his neck, a bowtie that lights up.

“He tends to call out the other characters for the nasty stuff they do to each other, and when they lie to themselves,” McGinnis said of the jester.

Some of the nasty doings in the play are perpetrated by a character named Parolles, who betrays Bertram’s trust.

“He’s self-minded, selfish, self-serving,” said John Toussaint, who has that role. “But I don’t think he’s without redeeming qualities.”

For another echo of the 1930s, Jahmeel Powers said, he has the cast deliver their lines in the distinctive way people spoke in 1930s radio plays, using the “TransAtlantic accent.”

While the theatre faculty is proud of the school’s lengthy record of presenting Shakespeare to modern audiences, first-time Shakespearean actors in the cast seem equally excited.

“My high school only did musicals,” said Mackenzie Kennedy, who came to King’s from Western Wayne High School in Lake Ariel.

“Being able to participate in a Shakespeare play, it’s amazing,” Ashlynn Fields-Clarkson, a graduate of Archbishop Ryan High School in Philadelphia, said before a recent rehearsal at King’s. ”I’m learning so much.”

Show times are 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14, 15 and 16; 2 p.m. Nov. 17 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 21 and Nov. 22. Tickets are available at the website onthestage.tickets/.