Missy - Alls Well that Ends Well ⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Alls Well that Ends Well is not particularly well known. I’d argue that it deserves its anonymity.

I’m pretty sure I saw it once at the Carter Barron when I was a teenager, but it’s very fuzzy in my mind. Please watch the above summary to get a feel for the plot. I certainly did. It’s not hyper memorable.

Here is our Helen. She is wise and beautiful, virtuous and ingratiating. She has terrible taste in men. She loves above her station. The King likes her.

Her father is dead. She is very sad.

Here is Parolles. He’s like the ugly duckling child of Iago in terms of malice and Antonio from the Tempest in terms of cowardice and bad planning. 

Most of the bad moves in this play can be traced back to him. On the other hand the protagonist’s seem fully capable of making bad decisions on their own so he’s more of a catalyst than an actual villain.

This is Bertram. He is self centered and foolish but apparently attractive. He’s recently become Count and is about to go make a name for himself at court.

His father is dead and Bertram is about to go live up to his good name (fail).

The main actions go like this.

Poralles convinces Helen to go get the man she wants (Bertram)  because her virginity is withering away.

Poralles convinces Bertram to run away to the wars rather than sleep with his own new wife because …? You’re not the boss of me?

Various chasing of uninterested parties and identity swaps ensue. This is Shakespeare after all.

In the exciting denouement a not very good riddle is told and Bertram and Helen fall magically in love and the King says something wise.

I’m giving this one 3 stars for plot and character.

There was a strange directorial decision to have the King and Helen kiss, for no apparent reason.

But I think the cast and crew did well with the play they had. I particularly thought the king had a very kingly voice and mean.

When we were about to start this play Mariam texted me that there is finally a mom and even a pretty good mom in one of our watches for this project.

I was delighted. 

The mom (Bertrand mom and Helen guardian then mother in law) is a pretty good mom and I’ll give her 4 stars for doing what she could with the son she had. Minus one star for being sort of ineffective but really not bad.

Even though we actually get a mom here I was struck by the missing dads from the beginning.

Their loss is world shattering and defining in a way it could not be today. Helen spends the first few acts completely at a loss for the absence of her father and likewise Bertram is defined only through the lens of his missing parent.

In a world where men held the lives and livelyhoods of their family’s in their hands,  a death like either of these would call for complete realignment.

I imagined Shakespeare imagining how lost and bereft his own daughters would be without him. There’s a certain amount of self aggrandizement  and martyrdom to the imagining though.

All of this  reminded me of this juvenile impulse that Henry VIII had. He loved this song about a beautiful beloved and gallant knight who’s died and how all the world morns for him.

He used to have it sung to him when he was feeling low, and thought it was very deep. To me it’s always smacked of a 7 year old telling everyone “You’ll be sorry when I’m dead!”.

This is all speculation but it’s what the play made me think about.

Now I also will be self indulgent and afflict you with my version of that song Henry VIII made people sing to him.