Shakespeare In A Fedora
Saturday night we went out with friends for dinner and a performance of 'The Merchant of Venice' by the Southwest Shakespeare Company. I can't claim a long history of theatre but I really appreciate live performances when I do attend. I love the enthusiasm of stage actors.
http://www.swshakespeare.org/
Southwest Shakespeare performs at the Mesa Arts Center. We first saw them a couple of years ago in the smallest of MAC's four theatres. It was a very intimate production of Two Gentleman Of Verona, only 98 seats. The center also has theatres of 1600, 550, 200 seats. The latest performance was in the 550 seat Piper Theatre. By most standards, a small gathering. It was a great show.
I've always appreciated Shakespeare having read several plays with Miss Frechette, my high school English teacher for two years. She enthusiastically turned us on to Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, A Mid Summer Night's Dream, and The Tempest. I may be forgetting one or two. Reading the plays is enjoyable, seeing them performed live is fabulous.
When you think of the Bard you see 16th century England, Tudor architecture, the ruffles, silk, lace, cloaks, and hose of Tudor era attire. It's delightful to see troupes like SWSC transport the work to another era. They set the 'Two Gentleman' and 'Merchant' in the 1940's. It totally works. I'm sure it makes the set design job a little easier. Also, finding double breasted suits, trench coats, and a fedora is less daunting than digging up codpieces for the men.
During intermission Cheryl made a comment about, 'Not always getting the lines." I think the Olde English loses most theatre goers if the lines are hastily spoken, which they often are, but you can always follow the story. Shakespeare's themes are basic, even if the plot gets slightly complicated.
For the second time we attended the final production of the SWSC season. Once again, I regret not seeing more shows. The tickets are not expensive, they're actually a bargain. They'll be back in the fall for a new season. I'll be sure to see more than one. I've already eyeballed the '09-'10 schedule.
Since they're cheap books, and short reads, I may pick up the plays before we see the performance. After we moved west, one of my biggest regrets was that I sold dozens of books before we moved, to lighten our load. Among them were several of Shakespeare's plays, including some I never read. I'll never make that mistake again.
The literary weight of classic work is far greater than the physical.