Psycho ninjas, Salt-N-Pepa, and lotto-winning ex-monks
Anything happen while I was gone?
We’re back! A huge thank you to Jordan Schneider for having me on his podcast to talk Shakespeare & Biden and a warm welcome to ChinaTalk folks. Below is a recap of all things Shakespeare from the last seven weeks.
Now Playing
Henry 6 One: Flowers and France and Henry 6 Two: Riot and Reckoning at The Old Globe. This production features a QAnon-shaman-like Jack Cade, Gloucester is “a finance bro,” Young Clifford is an “insane psycho ninja,” and then “some witches show up.”
Twelfth Night at Actors’ Theater of Columbus. A show was cancelled because of “aggressively loud and disruptive hate speech shouted at us on stage.”
By The Queen at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. Suffolk is “a little toxic.”
Coriolanus at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in a modern verse translation by Sean San José. Dramaturg Lue Douthit looked up “every goddamn footnote" and describes the original as “gnarly.”
Antony and Cleopatra at the Globe in a bilingual production in Spoken English and British Sign Language. “The Egyptians will use sign, Romans spoken English.” Watch “the barge she sat in” in BSL.
The Taming of the Shrew at the Globe. Peter Kirwin wonders “whether the production was aiming to punish the audience for buying tickets to this play.” Also described as an “entertainly bonkers” production where design takes center stage, the trailer shows off the spread-eagled baby doll set.
Pericles at the Royal Shakespeare Company. This production features Alfred Enoch and “could not have been done better but even this brainy, graceful staging can not admit the play to the core canon.” (Strong disagree. Pericles can and should be done more often even though its co-author was a complete lunatic.)
Hamlet at the Edinburgh Fringe by Peruvian company Teatro La Plaza. The production “features rap and improvisation, and is performed in Spanish with English supertitles by an eight-person cast, all of whom have Down syndrome.”
Romeo and Juliet at the Stratford Festival, directed by Sam White. Sam is the a brilliant leader of Shakespeare in Detroit, listen to her talk about how Salt-N-Pepa lead to her love of Shakespeare and how she is approaching “the goose exchange” in R&J.
Pre-Existing Condition at the Connelly in NYC. Playwright Marin Ireland’s experience of domestic violence during a production of Troilus and Cressida1 informs the play. Review.
Oh Mary! features bits of The Tempest performed with a “broad Scottish accent and a very narrow understanding of dialogue.”
Coming Soon
As You Like It at Shakespeare at Notre Dame (August 20 - September 1). Directed by brilliant critic/director Sara Holdren (yes, she does both) this production features puppets and one of the best press photos I’ve ever seen.
Romeo and Juliet at American Repertory Theater (August 31 - October 6). Directed by Diane Paulus and featuring everyone’s favorite Rum Tum Tugger, Terrence Mann, as Friar Laurence.
Celebrity Shakespeare
Sigourney Weaver as Prospero! Tom Hiddleston as Benedick and Hayley Atwell as Beatrice!2
Othello, directed by Kenny Leon with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal has a design team and a Desdemona.
Mark Rylance and Derek Jacobi Set for 1-Night-Only Performance of Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis.
News
This is the Kind of Story We Need Right Now
I’ve been waiting for someone to do a deep dive on Roy Cockrum, the Shakespeare-funding “lotto-winning Tennessee ex-monk.” Robin Pogrebin at the NY Times does not disappoint, describing Roy’s youthful adventures as a struggling actor appearing in Vampire Lesbians of Sodom before becoming a postulant at an Episcopal monastery.
Real Estate News
The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival got 1.5 million dollars and a visit from Senator Schumer.
Philadelphia theater company Quintessence purchased and will renovate their space. The company is “dedicated to bringing epic works of classic drama and literature to the contemporary stage and recently produced an all-male Macbeth.
Landlord says “Sleep No More” owes $4.5M in rent. Good luck getting it from the Porter, he’s more likely to vomit on your shoes.
California Shakespeare Theater’s is back at the Bruns Amphitheater after two years. They successfully raised $350,000 for As You Like It via GoFundMe & private donations weeks before rehearsals were scheduled to begin. They posted a breakdown of their costs.
Literary News
Author Kate Weinberg describes the theory that 16th century Luigi da Porto published his Historia Novellamente Ritrovata di Due Nobili Amanti, a possible source for Romeo and Juliet, in order to guilt-trip his cousin for marrying another man. Kate also breaks in to his house.
“We Burn Daylight” by Bret Anthony Johnston is “‘Romeo and Juliet’ reimagined in Waco.”
The former Archbishop of Canterbury reviews Stephen Greenblatt and Adam Phillips’ new book about Shakespeare & Freud.
Film News
“Lear Rex,” an adaptation with Al Pacino as “Rey Lear” will also feature Jessica Chastain as Goneril, Rachel Brosnahan as Regan, and Ariana DeBose as Cordelia. Peter Dinklage will play the Fool.
“Sing Sing” features Colman Domingo as an inmate “piqued that his prison’s latest theater production didn’t cast him as Hamlet.”
Leadership News
A reminder that Oskar Eustis plans to exit the Public on his 70th birthday, July 31, 2028.
Angela Lee Gieras Named Executive Director of Shakespeare Theatre Company.
“Inside the ‘Shakespearean Drama’ of the Murdoch Family" Cue Brian Cox bellowing. He does it magnificently.
Political News
“If Falstaff got a job as a pundit on CNN…” Must we compare Kamala to Richard II so soon?
A reminder that Shakespeare helped shift “weird” into its current meaning.
Other News
The cast of a disastrous 1986 amateur production of Macbeth in a church re-enacts the events 40 years later.
A firework interrupted a performance at the Globe in London. The original theater burned in 1613 after an incident with a cannon in Henry VIII. “A man's breeches caught on fire, but a bystander put the flames out with his bottle of beer.” This is why concessions sales are important.
‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Blast Show For Too Many Shakespeare Questions
Richard Branson Shares How William Shakespeare Played A Role In Google's Creation.
The guy who directed the Olympic opening ceremony also directed a 24-hour, 10-act Henry VI & Richard III. “The theater put out pillows so spectators could nap.”
“To yeet or not to yeet, that is the question” Or, “My ‘Shakespeare’ job alert is cursed.”
The Wooster Group adaptation featured white actors and was “Native American-themed.” Described as “a blight on the New York stage” that “reinforces the worst in Native American stereotypes known as ‘Redface,” the adaptation also performed in London where Mohegan theater-maker Madeline Sayet saw it and had thoughts.
If you have not seen baby Tom Hiddleston as Iachimo in Cymbeline, please enjoy. Also Cassio. And Coriolanus. He is also the current owner of the Hamlet red book.