Theatre review: The Three Musketeers roars with reckless energy, humour, and chaos
The coproduction by Arts Club Theatre Company and Citadel Theatre pushes the brash heroes through adventure after adventure
The Three Musketeers. Photo by Moonrider Productions.
The Arts Club Theatre Company and Citadel Theatre present The Three Musketeers at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage to February 16
ALEXANDRE DUMAS FIRST released the story of The Three Musketeers in installments, making readers impatiently wait through cliff-hangers to see what happened next. The coproduction by Arts Club Theatre Company and Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre takes all that action and packs it into one swift, swashbuckling ride, keeping the camaraderie and adventure that made the story a classic. Based on an adaptation by Catherine Bush and directed by Daryl Cloran, the show has plenty of humour in the mix, too.
The story kicks into gear with d’Artagnan, a young countryman arriving in Paris to pursue his dream of becoming a king’s musketeer, only to stumble straight into a duel. It isn’t long before he crosses paths with the legendary Athos, Porthos, and Aramis—three men as good at courting trouble as they are at wielding a sword. The resourceful and ambitious D’Artagnan (played by a dynamic Daniel Fong) is quickly swept into the musketeers’ world of sword fights, intrigue, romance, and danger at every turn.
What makes this Musketeers so enjoyable—and what this version gets right—is the reckless and unpredictable energy that comes along with the men’s famous heroism. They’re womanizers, drunk half the time, and always up for a fight. The perfect foil to their rowdy behaviour is Madame de Treville, the Charlie to their Charlie’s Angels. Played by Nadien Chu, she’s a sharp-tongued boss, putting the men in line like unruly schoolboys. They’re a wild bunch to wrangle, and the cast of three really nails that verve: Alexander Ariate as Porthos, the loud, fun-loving troublemaker; Darren Martens as Athos, quiet and dandyish but with a short fuse; and Braydon Dowler-Coltman as Aramis, the brooding, sharp leader full of secrets. Along with the youngest member, D’Artagnan, they’re driven by a mix of bravery, honour, romance, and, of course, chaos.
On the other side, power and money are the driving forces behind the villains who clash with our brash heroes. There’s Cardinal Richelieu, the king’s advisor in his signature red; Scott Bellis plays the character’s power games with some of the show’s best comic timing and a smooth, devilish delivery. Helping him carry out his schemes is the imposing and eye-patched Rochefort (actor Garett Ross’s booming voice adding to the character’s menace) and the classic femme fatale, Milady de Winter (Bahareh Yaraghi), as deadly as she is beautiful.
There’s a bit of political intrigue, with the church meddling in state affairs, the shaky French monarchy, and the horrors of the Bastille. But the play doesn’t linger on those too much. Instead, the plots push the musketeers through one adventure after another, with the stakes getting higher—and more personal—each time.
The play’s light direction matches well with the campy performances from the cast. The set—a revolving grid of wooden scaffolding—allows for the fluid changes between locations as well as for duelling characters, including background ones, who race up and down stairs and catwalks. Things move fast, with lots of choreographed fights, and Fong often gets the most impressive, acrobatic moves. But it’s mostly all about the fun. The show leans into its comedic action, like when the musketeers take out musket-wielding enemies by tossing pints of beer at them, or when the “pipsqueak” assistant of Madame de Treville (Farren Timoteo, a standout who also plays a hilariously vain and petulant King Louis) surprises everyone with his own fighting skills.
Sometimes, all this fun leaves the show’s more expansive plot points or heavier moments feeling a bit awkward. When Aramis comes face to face with an old lover and the heavy encounter ends in a joke, and D’Artagnan instantly falls for Constance (a lovely Jade V. Robinson) with all the subtlety of Pepé Le Pew. This isn’t the actors’ fault; it’s more about the narrative pace and the thrills the genre demands. But in the end, it all works, as the show nails what it means to be a musketeer: charmingly incorrigible and endlessly, if not brazenly, passionate.
Sophie Tang’s lighting design creates a moody atmosphere with candlelit rooms and moonlit streets. Jonathan David Lewis’s score situates us in 17th-century France while keeping up with the fast-paced plot. Cory Sincennes’s set and delightfully playful costume design fill the stage with fancy boots that kick ass, skirts that hide sheaths, and cloaks that obscure faces in the night.
Dumas’s original story is timelessly entertaining, and if you’re looking for some good, old-fashioned adventure, this version is more than up to the task. It’s fast, energetic, and fun, and all of its elements work so well together that any minor shortcomings are easily forgiven. 
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