Results tagged “seattleshakespearecompany”

    

ONE WEEKEND ONLY

Pulling off a Merchant at all is not easy. It's a play that pokes its nose into disreputable harbors, taking in the sights in a queasy, sea-voyaging way that keeps you pining for dry land. And it turns around an infamously over-determined character, Shylock, the Jewish loan broker.

MvB is going to get his pound of opening night hors d'oeuvres after seeing the The Merchant of Venice at the Seattle Shakespeare Company tonight. Saturday, if rainy, may involve an all-day LOTR-athon at a friend's in LQA.

Comedy is hard work--our first thought on leaving The Servant of Two Masters (playing at Seattle Shakespeare Company through February 1, tickets $22-$36) was that the cast members must lose about 12 pounds per night. A Cuisinart of one part mustachioed melodrama with one part vaudeville clowning around, this goosed-up production of Carlo Goldoni's commedia play is determined to make you laugh or die trying, and the actors soon erase any conditioned expectation of Shakespearean gravitas.

WATCH THE TOUR DE FRANCE: The Cascade Bicycle Club presents its annual Cyclefest. There's something for everyone--races for those who like to watch, a bike decorating station for those who like to do, and a lot of people in spandex for those who like to drool. After the sun goes down, watch the 17th stage of the Tour de France (that's the part where they race up the Alps. The Alps!) on a big screen. Wheel-less and feeling lucky? Enter the raffle for a bike worth $4,000.

We laughed ourselves silly during the buoyant slapstick farce that is The Miser (through April 6, tickets $20-$34), which was not really our plan. We'd meant to be stern with the Seattle Shakespeare Company--Moliere isn't Shakespeare. It's an obvious bait and switch.

That's David Quicksall as Brutus and Hana Lass as Cassius, above, in director Gregg Loughridge's quirky, stripped-down take on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It "doesn't always work," says the P-I, "but the actors stand out." Which sounds like code for "enh."

Through January 27 // Seattle Shakespeare Company // Tickets $30-$34, with student/senior discounts

Seattle Shakespeare Company's Pericles is awash in contradiction. It's the rarely performed Shakespeare play that Shakespeare may not have written. It's a comedy about a singularly painful life. It's fueled by strong performances -- Reginald André Jackson's Pericles is every minute compelling -- but marred by a directorial misstep that plagues the whole production. We don't recommend it as anyone's first Shakespeare play, but if you have never seen Pericles before, this production is a good reason to go. It runs through November 18 at Seattle Center's Center House; tickets are $20 - $34.

It's Seattle Shakespeare Company's version of the wandering prince Pericles on Friday night for MvB, followed Saturday night by Britain's accordion-driven, Brechtian street opera trio with neo-castrati Martyn Jacques, the Tiger Lilies at the Moore, ladies and gentlemen.

Through July 1 // Seattle Center House // Tickets $28 adults/$22 seniors/$18 students

The Comedy of Errors is another Shakespeare play featuring mistaken identities. The Seattle Shakespeare Company's production sets the mistakes in Louisiana, with bananas and pirates and a terrific set with so much overgrowth you think Max is about to make an entrance. There's much singing of ballads and sea shanties, and it feels like the patter was punched up by Simpsons writers.

With the Seattle Shakespeare Company's productions, it seems as if they're always hit or miss. Their current season has contained some of each, and the current play, The Winter's Tale, is a mixed bag. In this case, the set design and art direction is plain ol' lovely, while the acting leaves a bit to be desired.

Laugh-out-loud funny, immediate, with stabs of poignancy, the Seattle Shakespeare Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing (now through June 24, Thursdays - Sundays, at the Seattle Center House) seduced us with a remarkably strong, appealing cast. Thanks to the shrewd direction of the Children’s Theatre’s Rita Giomi, Shakespeare's comedy was dust-free, lucid, and vigorous in its attack on vain displays of male honor.

Sunday afternoon, after watching George Mason ensure that we'd lose our NCAA tournament pool for the 17th straight year, we joined some middle-aged ladies, high school kids, elderly couples, and 20-something drama enthusiasts at the Seattle Shakespeare Company's excellent production of Cyrano de Bergerac.

In between obsessively checking their progress in various NCAA tournament pools, here's how Seattlest types will spend their weekends.

Seattlest has read or seen a great deal of Shakespeare's plays, in one form or another. But somehow, Richard III had escaped our purview, even though there have been some interesting interpretations of the work. So when we saw that the Seattle Shakespeare Company was doing their own production, we figured it was about time for us to see this history play---in the round, no less.

Romeo and Juliet is one of those tales everybody knows, whether or not they've read it, seen it performed live, or watched one of the many film adaptations. So Seattlest kinda knew what to expect when we descended deep into the bowels of Center House for the play's opening night performance by the Seattle Shakespeare Company. We got the standard star-crossed lovers stuff, but director John Langs included a few modern updates, some of which we liked, and some...not so much.