Arlington Advocate review of SiH
Oct. 20th, 2006 10:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gilanaHollywood meets Shakespeare in AFD play
By Jennifer Mann/ Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006 - Updated: 06:50 AM EST
Shakespeare’s Oberon and Puck are transplanted in time to a Hollywood movie set, which just happens to be a screening of their own lives via A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The ensuing chaos is predictable, but that is what makes it amusing.
Arlington Friends of the Drama opened its 84th season last weekend with Ken Ludwig’s "Shakespeare in Hollywood," putting a local twist on this farce that mixes the prose of Shakespeare with the glitz and glamour of 1930s Hollywood.
The play opens with the garrulous reporter Louella Parsons (Sandy Armstrong) introducing the stars of the red carpet, including director Max Reinhardt (Stephen Russo), who has arrived jaded from Hitler’s Germany to try and sell his concept of putting Shakespeare to the silver screen.
Little do these leading ladies and gents know that the true luminaries have yet to appear.
It is after Reinhart is able to convince famed producer Jack Warner (Steven Malatesta) to give the show a try - or more correctly, after Warner’s buxom girlfriend and starlet Lydia Lansing (Leah Fine) convinces him to serve her a role with some meat to it - that the chaos cooks up on stage.
With smoke and lightning setting the backdrop for an important change, Oberon (Frank Hildebrand) and Puck (Jason Fenton) drop in after taking a wrong turn somewhere near Athens. While the show starts off slow, it picks up with the entrance of these two Shakespearean fairies.
What follows is real love and a tangle of manufactured love thanks to the wiles of Puck and a powerful flower that he uses loosely. With cross-dressing, dancing waiters, mistaken identities and a human donkey, the culmination is a Hollywood fete in Act II that proves Shakespeare and showbiz have certain things in common: magic, trickery and twists of fate, to name a few.
"Shakespeare in Hollywood" played on Saturday to a theater about three-quarters full, and like past shows of AFD, showed the theatre company takes a no-holds-barred approach to comedy.
The set sparkled, both literally and figuratively, in Act I. While minimal with only a tree and stub and rear stage brush, the swirling designs, gray colors and hints of glitter offered a look that was reminiscent of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night.
Among the actors, Fenton stole the show as a mischievous sprite beguiled by the thrill of Hollywood. The audience chortled as Puck snuck about on stage, and seemed particularly thrilled with his discoveries of the modern world - such as the scooter, neon blazer and pair of shades he sported in one scene.
Hildebrand, as Oberon, aptly balanced both the gravitas and humor that his role required. Fine was also strong on stage with her grating accent and ability to play well an actress who is lacking that same talent. Her best moment was the announcement, with appropriate pause and articulation - or lack thereof - that Shakespeare sounds just as good backward as it does forward.
The script in fact afforded each actor a chance to flesh out his or her character, and they rose to the occasion. With Peck, for example, it was when Darnell’s letters home took place as a soliloquy center stage. For Michael Trabucco, it was when his character of Will Hayes fell in love with none other than himself, and launched into a romantic and impassioned plea with the image in the mirror. There was also his memorable moment as the donkey.
Matlatesta and Russo were able to show both authority and vulnerability in their characters, and helped highlight some of the real-life aspects that were woven into the play.
But without too much on either the history or social climate of the 1930s, this show is best to see if you are looking for a light plot and heavy laugh.
Ken Ludwig’s Shakespeare in Hollywood is being performed by Arlington Friends of the Drama on Friday, Oct. 20 at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 22 at 4 p.m. at 22 Academy St. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at www.afdtheatre.org.
Four more chances to see it -- tonight at 8, Saturday at 2 and 8, and Sunday at 4. Hope to see you there!
By Jennifer Mann/ Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006 - Updated: 06:50 AM EST
Shakespeare’s Oberon and Puck are transplanted in time to a Hollywood movie set, which just happens to be a screening of their own lives via A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The ensuing chaos is predictable, but that is what makes it amusing.
Arlington Friends of the Drama opened its 84th season last weekend with Ken Ludwig’s "Shakespeare in Hollywood," putting a local twist on this farce that mixes the prose of Shakespeare with the glitz and glamour of 1930s Hollywood.
The play opens with the garrulous reporter Louella Parsons (Sandy Armstrong) introducing the stars of the red carpet, including director Max Reinhardt (Stephen Russo), who has arrived jaded from Hitler’s Germany to try and sell his concept of putting Shakespeare to the silver screen.
Little do these leading ladies and gents know that the true luminaries have yet to appear.
It is after Reinhart is able to convince famed producer Jack Warner (Steven Malatesta) to give the show a try - or more correctly, after Warner’s buxom girlfriend and starlet Lydia Lansing (Leah Fine) convinces him to serve her a role with some meat to it - that the chaos cooks up on stage.
With smoke and lightning setting the backdrop for an important change, Oberon (Frank Hildebrand) and Puck (Jason Fenton) drop in after taking a wrong turn somewhere near Athens. While the show starts off slow, it picks up with the entrance of these two Shakespearean fairies.
What follows is real love and a tangle of manufactured love thanks to the wiles of Puck and a powerful flower that he uses loosely. With cross-dressing, dancing waiters, mistaken identities and a human donkey, the culmination is a Hollywood fete in Act II that proves Shakespeare and showbiz have certain things in common: magic, trickery and twists of fate, to name a few.
"Shakespeare in Hollywood" played on Saturday to a theater about three-quarters full, and like past shows of AFD, showed the theatre company takes a no-holds-barred approach to comedy.
The set sparkled, both literally and figuratively, in Act I. While minimal with only a tree and stub and rear stage brush, the swirling designs, gray colors and hints of glitter offered a look that was reminiscent of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night.
Among the actors, Fenton stole the show as a mischievous sprite beguiled by the thrill of Hollywood. The audience chortled as Puck snuck about on stage, and seemed particularly thrilled with his discoveries of the modern world - such as the scooter, neon blazer and pair of shades he sported in one scene.
Hildebrand, as Oberon, aptly balanced both the gravitas and humor that his role required. Fine was also strong on stage with her grating accent and ability to play well an actress who is lacking that same talent. Her best moment was the announcement, with appropriate pause and articulation - or lack thereof - that Shakespeare sounds just as good backward as it does forward.
The script in fact afforded each actor a chance to flesh out his or her character, and they rose to the occasion. With Peck, for example, it was when Darnell’s letters home took place as a soliloquy center stage. For Michael Trabucco, it was when his character of Will Hayes fell in love with none other than himself, and launched into a romantic and impassioned plea with the image in the mirror. There was also his memorable moment as the donkey.
Matlatesta and Russo were able to show both authority and vulnerability in their characters, and helped highlight some of the real-life aspects that were woven into the play.
But without too much on either the history or social climate of the 1930s, this show is best to see if you are looking for a light plot and heavy laugh.
Ken Ludwig’s Shakespeare in Hollywood is being performed by Arlington Friends of the Drama on Friday, Oct. 20 at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 22 at 4 p.m. at 22 Academy St. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at www.afdtheatre.org.
Four more chances to see it -- tonight at 8, Saturday at 2 and 8, and Sunday at 4. Hope to see you there!
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-20 02:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-20 03:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-20 07:44 pm (UTC)(Luckily, they were even the same exact seats I would have been able to buy last week when I was first meaning to do it!)
no subject
Date: 2006-10-20 08:34 pm (UTC)