Ian Thal
Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production is a fine start to the company’s tenth aniversary season and an impressive realization of its founding mission statement — for this company, story and the actor’s craft trump directorial conceits.
Swiss Stage’s inaugural offering was Dog Paddle (Schwimmen wie Hunde), a domestic comedy based on existential themes, by the German-speaking playwright Reto Finger.
Playwright Stephen Jeffreys, despite his gifts as a writer, seems unable to find the dramatic stakes in his play.
Director Spiro Veloudos keeps the clockwork running smoothly, not just ensuring that that the actors keep the rhythm, but making use of a skilled backstage crew who engineer (miraculously and on time) scenery and costume changes.
So what’s a hero to do but throw punches and kicks in the name of love and forgiveness?
Dramatist Theresia Walser is careful to point out that these women did not merely benefit from the abuses of authoritarian power, but perpetrated many of them as well.
This production of Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice” tries to have it both ways: a show about intolerance, bigotry, and hatred is set in a ‘politically correct’ past.
Anat Gov does a fine job on the meta-playwriting level. “Best Friends” is a genre piece that is also an affectionate commentary on the genre to which it belongs.
Leaving aside the doctrinal issue of how much of a commedia dell’arte evening should be improvised and how much should be scripted, the Yale Repertory Theatre production, in terms of performance and design, sets a high standard.
Director Guy Ben-Aharon is on a roll. Working through Israeli Stage and German Stage, he has brought together another smart, compelling foreign play (an American premiere) and a first-rate cast.
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