WELL…

The Old Globe Theatre is opening its summer Shakespeare season with the comedy All’s Well That Ends Well, one of the Bard’s least presented (and least admired) works. Completists who wish to add the play to their list of missing Shakespeare shows may want to catch the Old Globe revival while they have a chance. This is one show that doesn’t come around very often.

(from left) Lisa VillaMil and Stephanie Hinck as Courtiers;
Susane Lee, Lance D. Bush, and Shalyn Welch as Soldiers

All’s Well is primarily a love story, but the male lead Count Bertran is one of the least likeable lovers in the Bard’s canon. Helena, the female lead, though more admirable overall, finally gets Bertram through some pretty steamy sexual manipulation. The plot corkscrews through the show, continually repealing the narrative laws of averages. But because it is a Shakespeare play, attention must be paid.

Mary Lou Rosato as Countess of Roussillon and Erick Lindsey as Rinaldo

The play begins with Count Bertram (Gabriel Brown) and his disagreeable companion, Parolles (Barzin Akhavan), departing for the King’s court in Paris during the Middle Ages. The lower-born Helena (Ismenia Mendes) loves Bertram madly and gets her chance at a royal husband when the young lady gives the King (Tom Nelis) a medicine that cures the monarch of a painful disease. As a reward, he offers Helena her chance at a royal husband of her choosing, and she quickly picks Bertram.

Ismenia Mendes as Helena and Tom Nelis as King of France

The snobbish count resents the match because of Helena’s lower-class birth. But to avoid the king’s ire, Bertrand consents but immediately flees to the wars in Florence to escape what he feels is an unworthy match. Before leaving, Bertram sets Helena two seemingly impossible tasks: to obtain his ring (which is on his finger) and to get him to acknowledge her as his wife. He believes these tasks are unattainable. 

Barzin Akhavan as Parolles, Gabriel Brown as Bertram, Arthur Hanket as Lafew

Bertrand and Helena drift apart, with the scene shifting to Florence, where the couple meet by chance. Sensing a way to recapture her reluctant husband, Helena impersonates Diana (Angelynne Pawaan), a local girl whom Bertram hopes to seduce. As Diana, Helena sleeps with Bertram and gets the ring, fulfilling both of Bertram’s ludicrous conditions. Helena, properly pregnant, returns from Florence to France. There she reveals herself to her husband and everything ends happily, if implausibly, with supporting performers Mary Lou Rosato, Erick Lindsey, Arthur Hanket, Matthew J. Harris, and Lisa VillaMil contributing solid support along the way.

Conner Keef as Duke of Florence, Stephanie Hinck and Shalyn Welch as Soldiers

The physical production is impressive. The two-level open-air playing area curves around the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, allowing the 22-member ensemble plenty of space for energetic crowd gatherings organized by scenic designer Lawrence E Moten III. The atmospheric light and sound designs are created by Sherrice Mojgani and Melanie Chen Cole.

Lisa VillaMil as Mariana, Alma Cuervo as Widow of Florence, Angelynne Pawaan as Diana

Judith Dolan‘s costumes are colorful, if a little oddball. The playbill doesn’t specify the time of the action, but the characters appear in costumes suggesting periods ranging from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance into the 19th century, all at once. Count Bertram is casually outfitted in a wardrobe of what resembles contemporary leisure suits. Parolles wears outfits that look like they were borrowed from comic strips. There isn’t much dancing, but choreographer Javier Velasco occasionally parades his chorus on hobby horses, apparently for no reason except that they added a little humor to the action.

Alma Cuervo as Widow of Florence, Ismenia Mendes as Helena, and Angelynne Pawaan as Diana

Credit director Peter Francis James for whipping the evening’s disparate components into a production that is often watchable and listenable. And yet, I spent too much of the night bored by long minutes of silly low comedy and implausible plotting. In a playbill interview, James suggests that All’s Well may be a first draft that never got a final polish. It wasn’t produced during Shakespeare’s lifetime so, maybe the author never gave the play his best shot.

The cast

In any case, if Shakespeare indeed composed 36 plays, I’d rank this piece in the low or mid-30s. If the Old Globe wants to troll for rarely produced but deserving works, how about King John or Two Gentlemen of Verona?

photos by Rich Soublet II

All’s Well That Ends Well
Old Globe’s  Lowell Davies Festival Theatre
1363 Old Globe Way in San Diego’s Balboa Park
Tues-Sun at 8
ends on July 6, 2025
for tickets, call 619.234.5623 or visit The Old Globe