Don’t let the eccentric title fool you. “It’s True, It’s True, It’s True,” now at Marin Theatre, is an out-and-out winner on multiple levels.
Funny, outrageous and imaginative, it’s based on a true court trial in early 17th-century Italy. Writers Billy Barrett and Ellice Stevens, of Britain’s Breach Theatre, took a page of a 400-year-old transcript that had been translated into English and went wild with it in ways that speak to our current day and at the same time evoke a much earlier era and culture.
When Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi—the first woman to be accepted into Italy’s Accademia delle Arti del Disengo—was 17, she was raped by fresco painter Agostino Tassi.
The case went to a seven-month trial—he denied culpability entirely—and part of that trial is enacted here in both its appalling horror (not only was she raped, but she was tortured during the trial as a test of her innocence) and absurdity: one of her complaints was that after raping her, he promised to legitimize their union by marrying her, then reneged.
But this is not like any court trial you’ve seen onstage. Here, the characters are played by four women who also appear, interwoven into the action, as a punk-rock band singing snippets of songs and playing instruments.
Two actors reappear as figures from traditional commedia, skulking around lecherously (spying on Artemisia as she bathes nude in the river) in commedia-style masks.
That the disparate elements, including rapidly changing costumes (elaborate and hilarious centuries-spanning outfits by Pamela Rodriguez-Montero) and carrying musical instruments off and on, are handled so smoothly is a tribute to director Rebecca Wear, cast and crew.
The actors perform in a variety of styles.
Emily Anderson, fragile and youthful looking, is a completely naturalistic Artemisia and can move, with utter authenticity, from quiet despair to rage, while San Francisco Mime Troupe vet Keiko Shimosato Carreiro, an old hand at commedia’s exaggerated, presentational style, performs in an entirely separate genre as a lying witness.
Somewhere in between the two styles are Alicia M.P. Nelson as a cunning court judge and Maggie Mason as the villainous Agostino. Both create full, sly comic characters that fill the tiny stage.
The different actorly approaches should make for confusion but somehow don’t. And just so, the mix of punk rock, Baroque art, commedia, a true-life rape saga and Renaissance court documents, all threaded together, work as a viable whole.
The playing area itself is part of this production’s charm. While you might find your view briefly blocked by an actor standing right next to you, you won’t mind.
A lot is packed into this short piece, including Artemisia’s re-enactment of her own famous painting, “Judith Slaying Holofernes.” Yet at about an hour and a quarter, it’s exactly the right length for such a remarkable and original play.
“It’s True, It’s True, It’s True” continues through May 4 at Marin Theatre, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. Tickets are $47-$81 at Marintheatre.org.
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