Central Works regulars will notice something familiar about their final production.
It’s not just that the company’s 81st world premiere brings over characters from its predecessor, with which it runs in rep through Sept. 6 at the Berkeley City Club.
No, the sense of déjà vu that comes with “The Prince Part 2” comes from Gary Graves recycling a previous script. The entire first act of this play is an abridged version of “The Contest,” Graves’ 2024 Central Works show dramatizing the Machiavelli-instigated rivalry between Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
Mind you, “The Contest” is one of Graves’ best works, but copy-and-pasting it into his two-partadaptation of “The Prince” just highlights how the latter didn’t need to be two parts. Part 2 doesindeed find Niccolò Machiavelli (now played by Mark Farrell) commissioning narcissistic genius da Vinci (Michael Ray Wisely) to paint the so-called “victory” at Anghiari in the Salone dei Cinquecento. At the same time, Niccolò also secretly commissions the openly gay upstart Michelangelo (Brennan Pickman-Thoon) to paint the Battle of Cascina. The former creates a technical wonder, the latter fetishizes the masculine form, and Machiavelli winds up imprisonedfor supposedly trying to kill Medici.
That imprisonment is clearly the entire reason for “The Contest’s” inclusion in this show, but this would have worked far more effectively as one of the direct-to-audience monologues Graves has Machiavelli deliver in both halves. The contest proper becomes a moot point compared to the fact that prison, and the strappado torture he receives, does exactly what it’s designed to do: it breaks him. The man of such certainty has that certainty beaten out of him. A brief description of that would have gone much further than a redux of an earlier play.
After all, it’s the broken Machiavelli who gains an audience with the younger Medici (Kevin Singer) in 1516. The new ruler of Florence was once a student of the wise and devout Niccolò, whose counsel he now seeks. To Medici’s shock, the rational sage of his youth has been replaced with a man who says that one can’t make a proverbial omelette (unifying the country) without cracking a few eggs (or skulls).
“Men do no obey out of good faith,” the old man says, “they obey out of fear.”
To drive home his point, Niccolò gifts Medici a manuscript based on his years of keeping counsel with warlords and royals. He implies it to be a guide on how to rule, plainly saying “You could be a new Caesar.” Never mind what happened to the last guy who used that title.
Finally, we jump to 1522 where Machiavelli is attempting to stage an early version of his play “La Mandragola” for Carnivale. Unfortunately, the three actors he was expecting are all no-shows. Fortunately, three revelers (Wisely, Singer, and Marah Sotelo) are happy to step in for a show that will put them face-to-face with the ruling class. The thing is, they have more in mind than simply staging a comedy – they’re ready to spark a revolution. The only question is which Machiavelli will react to their plan, the man of action or the man no consequence?
Make no mistake that both halves of “The Prince” are well-written and -acted history-fudging dramatizations. The use of contemporary clothing draws explicit modern-day parallels that work perfectly. That doesn’t change the fact that this didn’t need to be a two-part/six-hour marathon. Had Graves done some selective editing to Part 1 and dropped the entire first act of Part 2 then this could easily have been a one-night show. Perhaps that one night would have a four-hour show needing an intermission, but it would have trimmed the fat from the lean chateaubriand fighting its way out.
It also would have let the company end on their 80th world premiere, which is a great round number to finish with.
One of Gary Graves’ biggest strengths as a dramatist is that nary a word feels wasteful when written by him. As Central Works’ driving artistic voice, his own plays were often the highlight of the company’s season, so it makes sense for the artistic director to create the final show. Yet, his need to send the company out in grand fashion is hindered by stuffing his own script like a duck due to become foie gras.
Charles Lewis III claims to be an award-nominated journalist, culture critic, and performing artist born and raised in San Francisco. He alleges to have been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, the San Francisco Examiner, and many more. Dodgy evidence of this can be found at The Thinking Man’s Idiot.
‘THE PRINCE PART 2’
By Gary Graves, presented by Central Works
Through: Sept. 6
Where: Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant, Berkeley
Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes, with two 15-minute intermissions
Tickets: $35-$45; centralworks.org