Playwright William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. Twenty-four of them address his passionate love for an un-named person known as “the dark lady”, someone he described as ‘a woman color’d ill’ with black eyes and dark, coarse hair. Speculation about her identity has raged across the centuries, with several historical women often debated as candidates. One … Continue reading »
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Fun House Theatre’s HAMLET: An Unquestionable Triumph
That infamous Dane may dilly-dally around in Shakespeare’s play, but there’s nothing indecisive about Fun House Theatre’s production of “Hamlet”, nor with the production’s 15 year old lead Chris Rodenbaugh, plotting and fretting on barely contained “simmer”, waiting for the perfect moment to exact revenge yet unable to move from contemplation to consummation. Respectful and … Continue reading »
A Fine, Fresh Approach: “Hamlet” at Fun House Theatre
William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” as youth theatre? Not a concept one might ordinarily envision. The prospect of young thespians undertaking and understanding so complex and “adult” a play, much less memorizing all those lines in Elizabethan English, boggles the mind. Step back a moment and consider Jeff Swearingen’s Fun House Theatre and Film in Plano. If … Continue reading »
Rambo or Gekko? Shakespeare Dallas Does “Macbeth”
Does Macbeth project as Rambo or Gordon Gekko? This is not a trick question. In Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth”, an injured sergeant describes the title character’s conduct on the field of battle early in the play: ”For brave Macbeth, … Disdaining fortune, with his brandisht steel, Which smoked with bloody execution, Like valour’s minion, Carved out … Continue reading »
Bard Bonanza 2012: Trinty Shakespeare Festival
BARD BONANZA 2012: True confession. In spite of the wretched, encroaching N. Texas heat, I must confess I relish this time of the year because it’s regional Shakespeare Festival time. Hurray! I would eagerly review Shakespeare festivals everywhere, all year long. Best “Midsummer Night’s Dream” I ever saw was a bi-lingual version with 50/50 Russian/ … Continue reading »
Something for everyone: National Theatre Live, tonight!
A funny thing happened on the way to the National Theatre. Zing! As part of its international series, the “best of British theatre broadcast live to cinemas around the world” National Theatre Live scores a soaring comic “10” with its filmed presentation of A Comedy of Errors. This early William Shakespeare’s work gets overshadowed by … Continue reading »
Fairly foul, fairly good: Sundown Collaborative “Macbeth”
Fairly foul, fairly good. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth gets produced fairly often, with mixed results. Guess it’s one of those “harder than it looks” plays. I’ve seen three fairly effective productions by professional companies over the past few years, both in superior venues, with large budgets for costumes and fully realized sets and effects, helmed by … Continue reading »
Fortinbras,Fortinbras—wherefore art thou, soldier dude?
Hullo, Hamlet: you dashing, dizzy, doomed Dane. Wherefore did your intrepid Shakespeare Dallas director Rene Moreno deign to dilute your dimensional drama by employing a stuffy, flat version of your life’s demise? Whitewashed by conventionally prudish Victorian actor/ adaptor Edwin Booth, this version eliminates the politics and most of the conflict and passion in the … Continue reading »
Tempest in a Galactic Teapot: Dallas Theater Center Does Shakespeare, Again
Chamblee Ferguson is Dallas Theater Center’s Marathon Man. Is there any style of stage performance he can’t master with skill, dedication, depth and passionate lyricism? As brimming over with detailed, ornate stage settings and effects as DTC’s current production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest may be, Ferguson negates the need for any of it and would … Continue reading »
Kitchen Dog’s MACBETH: Mind Full of Scorpions
“We have brought down the regime”, chanted the Cairo Tahrir crowd , while many were seen crying, cheering and embracing one another. Mohamed El Baradei, an Egyptian opposition leader, hailed the moment as being the “greatest day of my life… The country has been liberated after decades of repression.” (AP Press) As Egypt sheds a … Continue reading »
