By Whitney Sorensen
All romantic comedy aficionados will appreciate With You, Max Huftalin’s updated Much Ado About Nothing, which is playing at the 2018 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival. Director Shianne Gray and Company of Cohorts bring this show to the festival this year on the tails of many other award-winning shows* by Huftalin.
With You is to Much Ado what 10 Things I Hate About You is to The Taming of the Shrew. The source material is staring you in the face in some scenes, and in others, the script mines new territory that allows the audience to be surprised. It’s a good mix, and I found myself wanting the 60-minute show to run longer, but I also appreciate the artistry of telling a complete story well and leaving the audience wanting more.
Fans of the Beatrice and Benedick relationship will find plenty to delight in. Contemporary star-crossed nemeses Alex (Tristan Johnson) and Gwen (Suni Gigliotti) can banter with the best of them, and the schemes to get them together are delightfully overseen by soon-to-be-wedded friend Charlie (Ali Lente).
As much as I love to see a will-they-won’t-they couple become a they-sure-did, I actually think my favorite couple in With You is Nick (Huftalin) and Jean (Amy Ware). As Nick’s new girlfriend, Ware plays the potential odd-person-out, but she is anything but peripheral. She makes the most of every line and facial expression she’s given. Her quirkiness and vulnerability made me cheer for her most of all.
The true core of With You, however, is the tension between Charlie’s fiancée Hailee (Michelle Lynn Thompson) and Hailee’s estranged sister Sophie (Carlie Young). They have a long-standing feud creating a cloud over the happy friends-weekend-away in the cabin, and many more of the scenes center on them than getting Alex and Gwen together. The play takes a little too long to reveal the source of the sisters’ disagreement to the audience. The final all-out discussion between them would have been a little more intelligible if the audience didn’t feel on the outside of the story for the first half of the scene. Still, both actors deliver the required emotion, and the lines they’re given feel realistic, not scripted. Lente also gets to show depth as a tender, supporting girlfriend in the resolution of this conflict.
All things considered, With You is a smart script well-staged. It’s got plenty of romance, plenty of heart, and plenty of laughs. I recommend the show for high-school-aged audiences and above because of some brief, intense language. Don’t let 2018 Fringe Festival end until With You has played with you in the audience.
*Company of Cohorts participated in the 2015 and 2016 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival, as well as the 2016 San Diego Fringe Festival. Past awards have been 2015 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival (Audience Choice Award for “Strangers, Lovers, Family, Friends”), 2016 San Diego Fringe Festival (Outstanding Ensemble Award for “Strangers, Lovers, Family, Friends”), and the 2016 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival (Miss Congeniality Award for “Resolved”). All three are written by Max Huftalin.
Company of Cohorts presents With You at the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival
The Gateway, 110 S Rio Grande St, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Remaining performances: Aug. 10 10:30 PM, Aug. 11 9:00 PM, Aug. 12 4:30 PM
Festival admission $5, show tickets $10
Company of Cohorts Facebook Page
With You Facebook event
0 Comments