Daniel Fong, Alexander Ariate, Braydon Dowler-Coltman, Darren Martens in The Three Musketeers, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price.

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

The irresistible urge to pick up something pointy and dazzle someone with fancy moves, and possibly run them through, is everywhere on display in the big, entertaining production of The Three Musketeers that brings the Citadel season to a close.

Yes, they don’t call it swordplay for nothing.

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In fact, the Catherine Bush adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s 1844 historical novel enjoys brawls so much it revisits them in flashbacks, amplified, or flash-forwards, in anticipation. In the very first scene of Daryl Cloran’s exuberant Citadel/ Vancouver Arts Club co-production is a brawl in a down-market tavern where the denizens (of all genders, by the way) are armed with shovels, brooms, tankards, as well as swords. Hey, just another night out in 17th century France.

And the show will replay, with trimmings, the acrobatic pleasures of that scene when Mme de Treville (Nadien Chu), the hot-tempered head of the elite royal troupe of official musketeers, demands an explanation from the star trio who just happened to be there energetically mixing it up. Duelling is against the law, she notes sternly. Which is, judging by this adaptation, a bit like pointing out that jaywalking is against the law in New York.

Daniel Fong, Nadien Chu, Braydon Dowler-Coltman, Alexander Ariate in The Three Musketeers, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price.

Anyhow, every time Cardinal Richelieu’s elite guard bursts in anywhere to arrest people and take them to the Bastille (“once you go in, you never come out”) as they are apt to do, a fight breaks out. Or if you’re like d’Artagnan (the excellent Daniel Fong), a wide-eyed newcomer to Paris from the hinterland with dreams of being a Musketeer, getting called “boy” will make you grab your sword. Shoving someone, or just being a bad-ass in a bad mood, that’ll do it, too. And as for revenge, well, it’s not just an invitation, it’s an urgent necessity.

Felix LeBlanc, Alexander Ariate, Darren Martens, Braydon Dowler Coltman, Garett Ross, Morgan Yamada in The Three Musketeers, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price

Fight choreographer Jonathan Hawley Purvis gives the 17-member cast swords (and daggers, and assorted sharp hardware), and an impressive arsenal of non-stop inventive moves. All good dangerous fun. In addition to a truly gorgeous array of period costumes and hats with vertiginous plumes, designer Cory Sincennes gives them a multi-layered three-tower wooden playground of wooden scaffolding to rebound off, with multiple staircases, on a revolve. Swashbuckling on revolving stairs is, as Hawley Purvis’s choreography confirms, no activity for the introspective. Ditto swinging from the chandeliers.

To say the least, you do not have to be a French lit major to follow the action of the (very long, very complicated) Dumas novel in this breezy adaptation. What does take the complications seriously is Jonathan Lewis’s grandly cinematic score, with its hints of the 17th century and lush gestures of adventure movies. A lot of French horns are involved, with strings for the romantic bits.

Daniel Fong, Alexander Ariate, Braydon Downler-Coltman, Darren Martens in The Three Musketeers, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price.

The script takes its cue and Cloran’s production its comic lightness from a teasing contemporary view of the boisterous macho camarderie that underpins the story. The trio of Athos (Darren Martens), Porthos (Alexander Ariate) and Aramis (Braydon Dowler-Coltman) are all deluxe stand-up swordsmen to be sure, but they’re inseparable good time party lads, carousers par excellence.

They have distinct personalities under Cloran’s direction, and stand in high contrast to Fong’s d’Artagnan, the idealist bumpkin who dreams of joining them. Although, wait, come to think of it, his favourite expression is the grandiose “I swear by the sword of d’Artagnan….”

The wink at boys-will-be-boys male stereotypes of heroism is reinforced by Chu’s performance, with she/her pronouns, in the male role of the imperious Musketeer commander de Treville. Her ground zero is extreme exasperation. She never speaks; she shouts. And then, when her short fuse gets even shorter, she hollers even louder. Her cowed assistant Planchet is played by Farren Timoteo in an amusing performance that has a whirlwind show-stopper of a scene later in the show; Hawley Purvis’s choreography is a (shall we say) knock-out. The opening night audience cheered him on.

The funniest single performance is Timoteo’s double-turn as King Louis, a preposterous narcissist who wears Sincennes’ most flamboyant costume, with its inflatable brocade bloomers, and dance steps by Anna Kuman.    

Daniel Fong and John Ullyatt in The Three Musketeers, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price.

As the treacherous spymaster Cardinal Richelieu, commander of the withering look and the acid tone, Scott Bellis is excellent. And his formidable henchman Rochefort is nailed by the sneering swagger of John Ullyatt’s performance. The inevitable duel between d’Artagnan and Rochefort is a fight highlight; the outcome is up for grabs.

There’s capital R Romance, to be sure. It’s treated comically in the case of d’Artagnan instantly falling head-over-heels for his landlord’s daughter Constance (Jade V. Robinson), a ninny who sounds like a character out of a comic book. And it has a more exotic edge in Athos, whose aristocratic past includes a relationship with the femme fatale Milady De Winter (Bahareh Yaraghi). He is, to say the least, a bit musket-shy when it comes to affairs of the heart: “love is a lottery in which the prize is death.”

With the exception of de Treville, who seems to ask for no credit for rising in a man’s world, the female characters in the story, and in performance, are pretty insipid, in truth. So just sit back, buckle your swash, and follow the clanging steel. There are letters, poisoned lockets, secret tattoos, purloined diamonds, secret identities, spy vs. spy — and swords. Merci, M. Dumas. And there’s fun to be had in this zestful well-armed swashbuckler of an adventure show. Seek it out, and see it soon before the cast gets impaled.

Have you read 12thnight’s preview interview with fight director Jonathan Hawley Purvis?  Read it here.

REVIEW

The Three Musketeers

Theatre: Citadel Theatre and Vancouver Arts Club

Written by: Alexandre Dumas, adapted by Catherine Bush

Directed by: Daryl Cloran

Starring: Alexander Ariate, Braydon Dowler-Coltman, Darren Martens, Daniel Fong, Scott Bellis, Jade V. Robinson, Garett Ross, John Ullyatt, Farren Timoteo, Bahareh Yaraghi, Morgan Yamada, Nadien Chu, Alexandra Lainfiesta, Felix LeBlanc

Running: through May 12

Tickets: 780-425-1820, citadeltheatre.com