Cultural Event #1 - Once Upon a Mattress play

Summary

On February 27, 2008, I attended the play Once Upon a Mattress, put on by the drama students at Fort Dorchester High School. It began at 8:30 a.m. and ended at about 11:00 a.m. The play is a musical comedy based off the fairy tale The Princess and the Pea. It is set in a medieval kingdom where everyone aspires to marry off the prince because law forbids any wedlock beforehand.

The show opens with a spoken/sung prologue by the Minstrel, setting the stage for the search for a true princess that dominates the play’s storyline. The action begins in what is presumably the royal court. The heads of the kingdom, King Sextimus and Queen Aggravain, are presiding over a series of tests to decide who is the most worthy princess to marry their son, Prince Dauntless. The audience is told that King Sextimus is tormented by a curse that forces him to be silent until “the mouse devours the hawk.” With his disability, the Queen has abused her powers and gone out of her way to keep Prince Dauntless from being married. As the latest princess to face the impossibly high standards of Queen Aggravain, all of the knights and ladies in waiting watch anxiously, for their fates are indelibly tied to the Prince’s. A law rules over the land stating that no one may wed until the prince finds a suitable bride. Unable to answer the final convoluted question given to her by the Queen, the twelfth prospective princess is dismissed. Everyone in the court then breaks into song, lamenting the rejection of yet another princess, which in turn has denied the happiness of all the future newlyweds.

The play then introduces a subplot involving Sir Harry, the most valiant knight of the land, and his girlfriend, Lady Larkin. She breaks the unfortunate news that she has become pregnant, much to the shock of Harry. This is unfortunate news because of the extenuating circumstances involving Prince Dauntless’s fruitless wife hunt. Forced to take bold action, Sir Harry pledges to his beloved to find the last princess in the realm and put an end to all their woes. After a while, he returns with an unconventional but suitable choice, Princess Winifred the Woebegone. She astounds the staunchly traditional queen with her eccentric mannerisms, audacious character, and colorful song-and-dance routines. She hails from the marshlands, where she appeared to have developed her athletic prowess, evidenced by her impressive feat of swimming the moat during her entrance into the kingdom. Prince Dauntless immediately takes a liking to her, as do the rest of the royal house, except Queen Aggravain. She stubbornly refuses to acknowledge any room in her son’s life for a mate. In adhering to her overbearing manner, she devises a scheme to deny Princess Winnifred of Dauntless’s hand in marriage. The queen and her loyal sidekick, the Wizard, come up with a secret test. Before Winnifred goes to bed, they place a pea underneath twenty mattresses. If the princess is unable to sleep because of discomfort, then she will be sensitive enough to marry Prince Dauntless.

On the day of the test, Dauntless and Winnifred fall head over heels in love. Sir Harry and Lady Larkin reach a rough spot in their relationship, only to have it resolved by the sincere charm of Princess Winnifred. Numerous slow ballads are played to emphasize the romantic feeling in the air. King Sextimus, wary of the queen’s cunning plans, enlists the aid of the Minstrel and the Jester to help discover the true test set up for Winnifred. They confront the conceited Wizard, who they are able to flatter enough so that he divulges the blueprint for the princess and the pea evaluation. When Princess Winnifred finally lies down on the twenty mattresses, Queen Aggravain intrudes. In order to help Winnifred sleep easier, and in turn fail the test, the queen sets up a nightengale’s cage in the room to help lure the princess to slumber. Instead, the plan backfires; Winnifred couldn’t get any shuteye because of the godforsaken bird’s shrieking. The following morning, the flabbergasted queen sees the princess still awake. Still, she denies that Winnifred is a true princess. Angered and frustrated by his mother’s circumlocution, Prince Dauntless tells Queen Aggravain to shut up. This fulfills the prophecy that restores speech to King Sextimus, for Dauntless was the “mouse” that devoured the queen, “the hawk.” As payback for ruling as a tyrant, Queen Aggravain loses her own tongue. Everyone in the kingdom, realizing that the chains on matrimony have been lifted, rejoice in a celebratory finale.

Critique

Once Upon a Mattress was a deftly handled play, containing all sorts of humor within the context of the script, a lot of which was hit or miss. Most of the musical numbers were energetic and had deftly satirical undertones. Although some of the performances were a bit hammy and histrionic, the whole event was so light-hearted that the audience hardly even noticed. The set pieces were expertly crafted, which helped lend a sense of realism to the atmosphere. Overall, I enjoyed the play, even though it seemed the acting couldn’t match up to the music.

What I found most glaringly obvious during the play was that many of the actors’ deliveries were stilted and/or pretentious. Natural emotions were few and far between. It was almost as If the troupe had practiced for so long that they weren’t able to inject any fresh vitality into the script. The most grating performance by far was the portrayal of Queen Aggravain by Ashley West. The entire performance was one-note; the idea of a multi-faceted character was thrown out of the window. One acting job that wasn’t entirely botched was Anthony Massarotto’s portrayal of Prince Dauntless. By behaving with impulsive abandon and confidence, he came off less like a self-conscious android and more like a vibrant tour-de-force.

The music was the backbone of the play that kept the wooden acting from boring the life of the audience. Many of the songs were irresistibly catchy and infected with humor. The dance numbers were pulled off impeccably, with nary a hitch. The instrumentation during the musical was essential to the fluidity of the music; flawless percussion seemed to be synchronized with the dancers’ movements.

I discovered a true affinity for high school productions with this musical. However many flaws there were, they didn’t detract from the playful energy that mesmerized the audience. The only thing that really annoyed me was the mental bird that kept croaking for what seemed like eternity; it was a running gag that was barely funny the first time.