Playwright: adapted by Robert Kauzlaric from the novel by Alexander Dumas. At: Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave. Tickets: 773-761-4477; www.lifelinetheatre.com; $40. Runs through: July 21
The average playgoer, asked about The Three Musketeers, will probably mumble something about sword-fights, big wigs and a scramble to recover a diamond necklace. You'll find some of this in Robert Kauzlaric's adaptation of the venerable Dumas sword-and-cloak classic, but the hallmark of this new page-to-stage translation is its adherence to the original source material, albeit illustrated in decidedly modern metaphors.
The first of these we notice is that our titular comrades are not the usual quartet of white guys, but an ethnically-diverse brotherhood rendering immediately recognizable the scorn heaped by cosmopolitan Parisians upon the southern-born D'Artagnan. The second is that the royal guards wear commando gear (T-shirts, berets, kevlar vests), in addition to the obligatory rapiers. More significantly, the boundaries of the warring factionschurch and state, Catholic and Protestant, France, England and Spainare laid out clearly, as are the conflicts they impose on individuals less steadfast in their loyalties as our "three inseparables," and the senseless deaths engendered by the vanity of powerful men and calculating women.
This is not some stodgy PBS costume-drama, however, all elongated vowels and eyebrow-acting. Scenic designer Alan Donahue has stripped Lifeline's stage to its bare walls and constructed thereupon a giant jungle-jim, replete with ladders, poles and cross-bars for climbing up, sliding down, spinning around, swinging on and dropping from.
Not only does this facilitate the kind of spectacle that sparked cheers and applause from the press-preview audience, but it allows the action to proceed at cartoon-swift pace without assuming likewise cartoon proportions. If the hitherto-definitive Richard Lester romp resembled a comic book, this is the graphic novel version, where innocent people die, villains go unpunished, and solitary heroes roam the mean streets, secure only in their own code of honor.
Portraying larger-than-life characters in an intimate space without slipping into hyperbolic camp is no easy task, but under Amanda Delheimer Dimond's deft direction, Glenn Stanton carries off the coming-of-age subtext inherent in D'Artagnan's progress, flanked by Chris Hainsworth, Dwight Sora, Christopher M. Walsh as his respective mentors. The ten actors filling the remaining 36 roles also retain their individual darknessindeed, Katie McLean Hainsworth's Milady de Winter emerges so irredeemably evil that her grisly execution by lynching is well-justified. The show's run is rumored to be nearly sold out already, so don't you wait to join in the fun and adventure.