Theatre Review by Christina Manolescu</MARQUEE>
This six-member acting troupe, having each mastered their own quirky, accented delivery of Shakespeare’s immortal words, literally straitjacket themselves into matching costumes of silky blue burlesque, then go wheeling, hopping and prancing across the stage for each passion-filled speech, interlocking embrace or murderous melee.
Given our age of audience interactivity, they also respond to a hailstorm of bread-rolls, aimed at certain flashpoints by viewers in the pit.
From the point of view of challenge, this taste of Shakespeare, served up raw and on the rocks, is more ‘awesome,’ even hypnotic, in its own distorted style than the grand-stage versions of normal fare. It’s all about pushing and tweaking the boundaries of what can be done with and to an original piece of art. The answer: just about anything goes!
This absurdist ‘take’ on Shakespearean drama by the Ottawa-based A Company of Fools is a super-irreverent ‘pièce de résistance’ or an extravagant side dish in which, centuries on, whatever the format, treatment or flavour, Shakespeare lives!
Theatre Review by Christina Manolescu © 2008 Invisible Cities Network