' ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’ at PAC: Lurid, grisly 17th-century drama, with many opportunities missed

Uncontrolled lust and violent rage, corrupt rulers and scheming servants: In the Philadelphia Artists’ Collective production of John Ford’s 17th-century drama ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, there are enough lurid twists and grisly turns of plot to supply an entire season of Law and Order: SVU. Incest. Deception. Disguises. Betrayals. Torture. Poison. Eye-gougings. Butchery. Murder. Murder. Murder.

The plot centers on the shared sexual passion of a brother, Giovanni (Trevor William Fayle), and sister, Annabella (Stephanie Hodge, lovely); their father, Florio (Nathan Foley), wants his daughter to marry one of her many suitors without a clue as to why she’s so reluctant. Chief among those suitors is Soranzo (the excellent David Pica). Soranzo has an Iago-like servant, Vasques (Abdul Sesay, whose lack of classical diction is a real disadvantage: he’s the character whose machinations govern the action, yet he’s so hard to understand). Like Iago, this shrewd manipulator will be the last man standing. Another of her suitors, who couldn’t care less, is the comic relief, Bergetto (Josh Totora, a standout), and his servant (the adorable Amanda Jill Robinson).

Given the mayhem of ’Tis Pity, PAC’s production is surprisingly bloodless. I don’t mean they have stinted on the gore (the final scene with its spectacular fight is a psycho-moment to behold; much praise to fight choreographer Eli Lynn). I mean that the production doesn’t seem to take itself seriously. Act 1 is played for laughs, so that by the time things turn really nasty, the audience is still laughing. Revenge tragedy has its own rules; they belong to another era, but that is where usually PAC excels.

The bloodlessness may also be due to an academic rather than theatrical approach. Jessica Bedford, the director, writes in her program notes about the “bifurcating effects of urban isolation; both within the chambers of the body (the carnal and the cerebral) and the chambers of a house (the bedroom and the banquet hall).” This sounds more like an essay for a course in Renaissance Lit rather than a way to dramatically conquer a strange artifact of another era.

The venue itself is problematic: a huge bare room, with the audience seated in the round (in a play that cries out for a proscenium). This means the actors are necessarily speaking with their backs to many of us much of the time, and, given the terrible acoustics, some of the dialogue — difficult enough with 17th-century English — is lost. Oddly, the climactic murder scene has been placed in one corner, making it nearly invisible to at least half the audience.

But the main fact is that PAC has given us a rare chance to see ’Tis Pity, another script they plucked off something like a Renaissance Kilroys’ List, and for that we should be grateful.

Through April 14. Philadelphia Artists’ Collective at the Philadelphia Boys and Girls Choirs, 1336 Spring Garden St. Tickets: $15-$25. Information: 267-521-2210, philartistscollective.org.