Director and adaptor Brian Kulick combines two very different Elizabethan works -- Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida and Thomas Heywood's The Iron Age -- in the satisfying The Age of Iron, now at Classic Stage Company. This theatrical sprint through the Trojan War, from Helen's abduction through the Greeks' victory, is an ambitious if problematic project that benefits from some beautifully conceived performances and a top-notch physical production.

The evening begins awkwardly with the first meeting between Helen (Tina Benko) and Paris (Craig Baldwin). Their love-making is delivered with laugh-inducing camp -- an interesting choice and one that illuminates the human folly that leads to tho[...]