“All’s Well That Ends Well” is considered by scholars of Shakespeare one of his “problem plays.” It falls somewhere between comedy and drama — though it’s categorized in his canon as a comedy. The principals of its unrequired love story, Helena and Bertram, are not your usual Shakespearean romancers, either.
None of this is a problem for either Ismenia Mendes or Gabriel Brown, who are playing Helena and Bertram of the House of Roussillon in the Old Globe’s outdoor season-opening production of “All’s Well That Ends Well” directed by Peter Francis James. On the contrary: They’re relishing their opportunity to portray these unconventional lovers.
“A lot of the women in the play, including Helena, have a lot more agency than women have in other Shakespeare plays,” said Mendes, who has played Hero in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Cressida in “Troilus and Cressida,” both on the Public Theater’s open-air Delacorte stage in New York’s Central Park. “She’s the daughter of a doctor. She’s the she-doctor in the court. She has a lot to do. There’s something about her that’s very minutiae-oriented.”
Helena is also the pursuer in “All’s Well That Ends Well,” and a calculating one at that.
“I would argue that what she feels in the beginning of the play isn’t so much love as obsession,” Mendes said. “Obsession with this boy (Bertram), who’s very much a boy, and how their relationship explodes because she goes full steam ahead without regard to consequences.
“She’s aggressive in her tactics. These women in the play have much more control over their futures than they do in a lot of other Shakespeare plays.”
Meanwhile, as Bertram, Brown is playing a young aristocrat who wants no part of Helena, preferring not only warfare in Italy but another woman, Diana of Florence (played by Angelynne “Ajay” Pawaan). Brown is sympathetic to a character that often is regarded as anything but.
“He’s getting to see the world,” Brown said. “Helena does this elaborate scheme to get him to marry her, so all of a sudden this whole dream and adventure he had planned is immediately halted. His world comes crashing down before his eyes. Essentially the guy ends up marrying somebody he doesn’t really like, and he had no say in that.
“I do think Bertram has gotten that rep of being not necessarily a likable character. I’ve always wanted to play Bertram and see the moments where he can find his relatable qualities. It’s easy to play him as someone who’s not nice, but it’s more interesting to explore the circumstances that are the causes of why he’s doing the things he does.”
Mendes says that the Helena character is sometimes misunderstood, as well.
“If the genders were reversed,” she insisted, “you would be really rooting for everything Helena does because she’s being trapped into circumstances.”
Both Brown and Mendes appreciate a portrayal of young love from Shakespeare in “All’s Well” that contrasts with his other comedies
“With a play like ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ it’s straightforward,” said Brown. “In this play, love is so much more complex than having a crush on someone. These characters are caught up in that journey of discovery of not only what love is, but of themselves.”
To Mendes, “The play explores the flaws and the complications of a romance. It’s much more about what if it isn’t all perfect? It’s also hilarious – it is a comedy. When you put it in the context of , where people feel so intensely, and you really run with that, then you have a very funny situation with these young people running without looking where they’re going and falling off a cliff and having to deal with the consequences.”
She also embraces the challenge of this Shakespeare work.
“I had just as much fun doing ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ but it’s airtight. It’s clean. It’s sharp. Shakespeare gives you a freaking roap and you follow it. With this play, you have to find your way a little.”
Brown suggested that “This might be one of the plays Shakespeare sat on or didn’t get all his actors together to flesh out and make shiny and tight. What’s fun about this is carving our way through.”
While the title “All’s Well That Ends Well” portends a fairy tale conclusion, Mendes reminds that “It’s not your traditional happy ending. That’s what makes it so interesting.”
Brown envisioned a story of Bertram and Helena that starts after all ends well.
“It’d be amazing,” he said, “to have a sequel to this play, how they are dealing with married life after going through this wild journey. In a weird way, the ending is just the beginning of a relationship after having gone through that journey.”
‘All’s Well That Ends Well’
When: Now in previews through Friday. Opens Saturday and rusn through July 6. 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays
Where: Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego
Tickets: $36 and up
Phone: 619-234-5623
Online: theoldglobe.org
