COUSIN BETTE: 100% Sweet – UPDATED

Photo by Michele K. Short

SWEET
At least one key performance is over laden with shtick, and some fine-tuning of others is in order. Still, Doukas is terrific, delivering a consummate performance that arouses, for her long-suffering deceitful character , pity, disdain — and admiration. Tony Amendola’s licentious merchant is also top-notch. And alongside the story’s bathos is its salient reminder of what cruelty, indifference and injustice can do to the human spirit.
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly

SWEET
The production whizzes by, with servants in costume moving props on and off. The superbly trained cast never loses their grip on the audience’s attention. A. Jeffrey Schoenberg’s costumes convey all the richness of the period and Tom Buderwitz’s scenic design, down to the comical paintings on the walls, looks appropriately aged. Chopin’s delicate piano music provides the leit-motif. Run, do not walk, to this unique production of a world class play!
Laura Hitchcock – CurtainUp

SWEET
Jeffrey Hatcher, whose adaptations include “Tuesdays with Morrie” and “The Turn of the Screw,” has a field day with humor, sex and deceit in penning a version of Balzac’s Machiavellian tale in a contemporary voice. The setting remains 1830s Paris, but once Bette breaks the fourth wall in the opening scene, it’s obvious the dialogue and the characters feel few ties to historical accuracy. The commanding, measured performance from Nike Doukas as Bette is the main attraction; the others are there to fall into her wicked maze of deceit and revenge.
Phil Gallo – Variety

SWEET
Jeffrey Hatcher’s tidily abridged adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s huge novel “Cousine Bette” brings Balzac’s wit and the flavor of the novel to this absorbing theatrical script—as apropos now as the novel was 160 years ago.
Dany Margolies – Backstage

SWEET
The chief drawbacks are its length and uneven narrative weight. Hatcher’s carefully modulated Acts 1 and 2 give way to an Act 3 that is virtually all events and reversals. These reservations needn’t stop Balzac devotees or “Masterpiece Theatre” fans from booking tickets immediately.
David C. Nichols – LA Times

SWEET
Antaeus, the little classical acting company that could, is developing into a well organized and disciplined group. The company begins its first subscription season with a stunning doubly cast premiere of Balzac’s pot-boiler, Cousin Bette, rendered for the stage by Jeffrey Hatcher and directed by Antaeus Creative Director, Jeanie Hackett. To see both casts perform, as I did on opening weekend, is to realize the promise of theatrical works as opposed to the insistence of competing media.
Leigh Kennicott – Stagehappenings

SWEET
The big picture is also always on the mind of The Antaeus Company, a hugely talented company of terrific players who produce some of L.A.’s most important classical theatre offerings, always done to a fine turn. They certainly do a fine job with the current production of “Cousin Bette”.
Madeleine Shaner – Park La Brea News/Beverly Press (opens in pdf)

SWEET
Who would ever have thought that a 164-year-old French novel would provide the basis for the juiciest, funniest, most twisted 3-act, 3-hour family saga since Tracy Letts’ August Osage County? But that’s precisely what Jeffrey Hatcher’s delicious adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s Cousin Bette has turned out to be, particularly under the brilliant direction of Jeanie Hackett and as performed by the superb troupe of actors who make up the Antaeus Company, “L.A.’s Classical Theater Ensemble.”
Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA

SWEET
The “deliciously wicked” tale of vengeance and lust effectively straddles post-Napoleonic France and contemporary wit with seamless grace and ferocious bite. A play in three acts, Cousin Bette is a surefire hit for audiences hungry for theatre with depth and eloquently executed passion.
K. Primeau – LA Theatre Review

SWEET
This is one of those rare evenings in the theatre, where all the elements fall into place, so one may leave joyous at a great night of theatre.
Dale Reynolds – Stagehappenings

SWEET
The Antaeus Company seems never to fail to bring high quality theater to its audiences. Their newest production in their interim home, Deaf West Theatre in North Hollywood, is tantamount to one of the best theater pieces playing. This is a company of extremely fine artists, and with this production, there is no doubt in my mind that, no matter which actors will be performing on any given night, it matters not.
Carol Kaufman Segal – Stagehappenings