"Two gents" — no 'rents

“Adolescents do insane things.”

Say that in the same tone that people used to say “Boys will be boys” and you’ll have the heart and theme of STC’s “Two Gentlemen of Verona” directed by P.J. Paperilli. And heaven help us, it’s true. Especially when there’s little, if any, adult supervision.

(Full disclosure: I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Paperilli for the STC Asides magazine last month which gave me the advantage of an inside view of the director’s vision for this show.)

Shakespeare’s early and seldom performed comedy (the one with the dog) bursts on to the Lansburgh stage with all the exploding hormonal drive of teenagers at a rave. Anticipating both the comic high jinks of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the heartbreak of “Romeo and Juliet,” “Two Gents” introduces the devices that would become so familiar to audiences in later works — and all in the service of crazy love: a man whose head is turned in an instant from one woman to another, a woman disguised as a man seeking her lover, comic riffs by servants on masters, rings full of symbolism, letters full of promises soon to be broken.

And why? They’re young and crazy. They’re adolescents.

And that’s the key to this production’s irrepressible bond with the audience. Walt Spangler’s heavy metal set juts in aggressive diagonals in every direction. An electronic board above the stage directs us to locations and offers comment. (“Do you know where your children are?”) Colors and lights are bold, and Fabian Obispo’s sound design, when it’s not channeling U2 or Beyonce, is of the “turn that racket down” variety. An exception is the tuneful and tender “Who is Silvia?” sung by Valentine and his posse in what looks like a nightclub.

Nevertheless, the characters, including the dog, (especially the dog) win our hearts. Well, maybe not Proteus. He’s a work in progress.

Valentine, the constant lover (Andrew Veenstra) and Proteus of the changeable heart (Nick Dillenburg) may have sworn eternal friendship before they both wound up in Milan, but that doesn’t stop Proteus from falling for Valentine’s girl, Silvia, and forgetting his promises to Julia. Quite simply, he wants what his friend has, and couching it in terms of love seems the most acceptable way to proceed. Veenstra and Dillenburg play with an innate urgency that explains the gun shots, deception, the desperate escape, and the final white-knuckle fight. Kudos to that last, violent episode for making sense of the famously difficult line: “All that was mine in Silvia, I give thee.”

And who is Silvia that she inspires such a ruckus? Natalie Mitchell plays the elegant daughter of the Duke of Milan (Brent Harris) and brings such stature to the part of this principled young woman that pretty much everyone falls in love with her — even Julia, in a way.

Miriam Silverman is a standard issue teenage girl in love as Julia, but dressed as Sebastian discovering Proteus’ duplicity, she is heartbreakingly winsome. Why she wants him back and why Valentine forgives him are just two of the erratic channels in this unpredictable current of adolescent love.

There’s one voice of reason, two of wit, and one of silence. Inga Ballard as Julia’s waiting woman, Lucetta, creates the kind of lovely, well-grounded older friend that everyone should have — not just hyper-emotional teenage girls.

Speed on a skateboard (Adam Green) and Launce (Euan Morton)with his dog bring some cool, quick wit to all this heated passion, but in keeping with “Two Gents” tradition, no scenes capture the audience like the ones with adorable, scene-stealing Crab (played by the shaggy, adorable, scene-stealing Oliver). If you’re going to share the stage with a dog, just get used to being ignored. They make an engaging pair and a quietly trenchant comment on the way the beloved abuses the lover.

Launce delivers his litany of complaints, the punishments and humiliations he has endured in order to spare Crab from harm, only to be greeted with the mildest and most disinterested regard.

Neither Shakespeare nor Paperilli are overly concerned with anachronism. In ramping up the relevancy of teenage behavior across the ages, the young folks listen to their Ipods, access apps on their smart phones, and, in Launce’s case, twitter a message that appears in all its misspelled glory on the moving message board.

They pull guns instead of swords, and in keeping with the “then as well as now” slant of the production, they wear designs by Paul Spadone that suggest the Elizabethan period, but with a streamlined finish.

It’s funny, it’s high pitched, and it’s a crash course in what director vision can do for a troublesome script.

Maggie Lawrence is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association. She is a retired English and drama teacher.

Want to go?

What: “Two Gentlemen of Verona”

Where: The Shakespeare Theatre Co., Lansburgh Theatre, Wash., D.C.

Call: (202) 547-1122 or visit shakespearetheatre.org

Playing through March 4