Nova Arts Project's latest turns Commedia to Tragedia -- for laughs
By Everett Evans, Houston Chronicle

OK, let's get the title out of the way first. It's The Most Lamentable and Tragick Tragiful Tragedy of The Ambassadors (A Tragedy of Tragical Proportions) -- henceforth, abbreviated as Tragedy.

Fair or not, one approaches Nova Arts Project's latest with expectations generated by its title. From one perspective, you might ask ``Aren't they trying our patience a bit with that title?'' (And if so, what might the play be like?)

Yet from another, its roguish air at least implies something fresh and playful. And the ample reiteration tells you the show deals with theatrical representations of tragedy -- perhaps a sendup?

Your interest likely will increase when you learn the project grew out of Nova artistic associate Bernardo Cubria's three-month visit to Italy last fall. Along with Houston actors Philip Hays and Andrew Hurst, Cubria took part in a workshop taught by Commedia Dell'Arte Maestro Antonio Fava. The Houston trio made friends with two workshop participants from Spain, Pablo Duran Rojas and Gara Moro Murillo. All became part of the 11-person ensemble who jointly developed, designed and staged Tragedy, and are now performing it with gusto.

Their idea was to create a ``tragic'' take on the Commedia Dell'Arte tradition. The show employs familiar Commedia devices and characters: the greedy codger Pantalone; young lovers Flavio and Isabella; wily servants Coviello and Columbina; and so forth. Yet the plot -- about (fictitious) warring nations and the infiltration of the two courts -- leads not to a happy ending but a violent, gory one.

But don't be too concerned about the ``tragic'' implications. It's all played exclusively for laughs, as broadly and energetically as possible. The game and varyingly gifted players behave as antically as possible. They shout, cavort, clobber each other and finish in a flurry of intentionally artificial dismemberments, mutilations and slayings, with those little packets of stage blood spurting from everyone's costumes and assorted goop spraying from their mouths.

There's also plenty of audience participation, for those who are game to kibitz or otherwise enter into the proceedings. The result suggests a mixture of a madcap party game and children's theater for adults, replete with wacky puppets.

The show's press release speaks of the creators' intention of ``retraining audiences to have fun at the theater'' by devising ``the sort of show you cannot sleep through.''

It's certainly lively, and fitfully funny. Yet a little goes a long way. By the very nature of the enterprise, a certain sameness and repetition set in. They were wise to keep it to a single, intermission free act of about 85 minutes (even that seems stretching it at one or two points.) But it's different from anything else anyone's offered here recently. And the elements of improvisation and audience involvement do achieve a genuine unpredictability at times, which is refreshing.

So if you want a chance to sass back at the actors, contribute your own props or costume pieces at key moments, or even get sprayed with gunk during the death scenes (if you sit in the front row), this Tragedy is your ticket.

The Most Lamentable and Tragick Tragiful Tragedy of The Ambassadors (A Tragedy of Tragical Proportions)
When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays, with late shows at 11 p.m. Saturdays, through April 15. Also, 8 p.m. Monday
Where: Nova Arts Project, at the Midtown Arts Center, 3414 LaBranch
Tickets: $10-$15; 713-623-4033.