The emphasis is on the physical comedy in David Stradley’s production
View More THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (Del Shakes): 60-second review
Tag: William Shakespeare
Articles about William Shakespeare and reviews of Shakespeare productions in the Philadelphia area.
“He was not of an age, but for all time!”—Ben Jonson, preface to the First Folio, 1616
Development, Culture, and Community in the Forest of Arden: REV Theatre’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM at Columbus Square Park
REV invited us to chase characters through the Forest of Arden against a backdrop of South Philadelphia’s urban skyline.
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The Mechanical Theater Brings RICHARD III to Laurel Hill Cemetery
A dark and emotional 90-minute production of Shakespeare’s bloody history of war, murder, and blind ambition is performed outdoors by a cast of six on the grounds of a 19th-century cemetery.
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JULIUS CAESAR (PA Shakespeare): A staging come to steal away your hearts
One must praise Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s CAESAR and do everything to keep it from being buried until the maximum number of people see Patrick Mulcahy’s intelligent, timely production.
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The Mechanical Theater Discusses its New Site-Specific Take on ROMEO AND JULIET
The cast, director, and artistic director of Mechanical’s upcoming production of Shakespeare’s classic give a sneak peek at their original site-specific adaptation.
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TWELFTH NIGHT (Philly Shakes): What you will!
The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre demonstrates Shakespeare’s continued relevance with a well-choreographed comedy of contemplation.
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MACBETH (Philly Shakes): Blood should have blood
This is a solidly accessible MACBETH, with comprehensible delivery and an easy-to-follow story—the kind of Shakespeare you go see with your high school class.
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RICHARD III (People’s Light): Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction
A dichotomy of delight and disgust makes this production such a treat—a feast with many courses, each richly flavored and deeply textured.
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AS YOU LIKE IT (Lantern): As you’ve never seen it!
A cross-temporal interpretation of Shakespeare’s Elizabethan classic injects passages of current expressions and gestures, slapstick, and original music into the well-known pastoral rom-com.
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Taming the Brew: ShakesBEER brings the Bard to a brewery with a drinky MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
“The script is a little more silly and beer filled then Shakespeare originally wrote it,” says MTC’s artistic director Sean Connolly.
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TWELFTH NIGHT (Filter Theatre in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company): A rousing Shakespearean travesty
The Filter ensemble shows the audience a good time with lots of music, noise, and laughs within a Shakespeare play environment.
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LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST (CTC): A post-modern musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic rom-com
An updated musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic rom-com brings current import to the battle of the sexes and coming of age in post-modern times.
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MACBETH (Villanova): Ambition, conscience, fates, and kazoos
This production offers gore, unconventionality, and laughs, and certainly strikes up debates about the meaning of the play’s profound poetry.
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EQUIVOCATION (Arden): They made him an offer he can’t refuse
In the wake of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, Shakespeare is summoned to take on a play commission for the Crown.
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What Theater Can Do that TV Can’t
The success of TV is based on its ability to entertain. Theater must be its own medium. It must say new things, create new forms, eschew entertainment in order to challenge, and let audiences turn on their minds.
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LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST (Revolution Shakespeare): 2015 Fringe review 61
A clever new take on Shakespeare’s early romantic comedy imparts the flavor of 1960’s-70s Americana with live country-rock music and a multi-talented cast of actors/singers/musicians.
View More LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST (Revolution Shakespeare): 2015 Fringe review 61
KILL WILL (Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre): 2015 Fringe review 54
Seven actors explain, enact, and parody a series of Shakespeare’s “bloody bits” in this fast, furious, and funny mash-up of The Bard’s iconic death and battle scenes.
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TILL BIRNAM WOOD… (John Schultz): 2015 Fringe review 3
Shakespeare blindfolded: In the darkness, Shakespeare is illuminated.
View More TILL BIRNAM WOOD… (John Schultz): 2015 Fringe review 3
[NYC] HAMLET THE HIP-HOPERA (Feast Productions): FringeNYC review
This FringeNYC mash-up of Shakespeare and Eminem combines passages of The Bard’s verse and prose with current explications and amplifications set to an urban beat.
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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Mechanical): A rapid-fire current view of Shakespeare’s “merry war”
Shakespeare’s popular romantic comedy is given a new look and a quick pace in Mechanical Theater’s delightful production, performed at Society Hill’s historic Powel House.
View More MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Mechanical): A rapid-fire current view of Shakespeare’s “merry war”