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January 23, 2008
Theater By The Blind to do Shakespeare
ROMEO AND JULIET by William Shakespeare
Directed by: Ike Schambelan
Date: MARCH 5 - APRIL 6, 2008
Performances:
- Wed-Thurs at 7pm,
- Fri-Sat at 8pm,
- Sat, and Sunday matinees at 3pm
Location: The Kirk at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, NYC.
The timeless, tragic tale of two young lovers whose untimely deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. The production is traditional, rigidly faithful to Shakespeare's rules and form, yet wonderfully fresh and modern. The story takes place on NYC's Upper East Side; the Capulets are the nouveau riche, the Montagues, old money. Shakespeare is incredibly precise about real time in Romeo and Juliet, tracing five days - Sunday dawn to Friday dawn in mid - July. In TBTB's production, the time progression will be perfectly clear, taking the audience through each day's dawn, bright noon, sunset, and night. And the "two hours traffic of our stage" will actually take two hours.
TBTB has achieved great success with Shakespearean plays presented during the past two seasons - A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet. The New York Times said that A Midsummer Night's Dream was "an inspired choice for Theater By The Blind... fascinating... ingenious," and "the most intriguing thing is how the company stages the play with just six actors." The Times called Hamlet: "Playful, punchy, contemporary... An admirable, often intriguing production... with actors who show signs of having actually analyzed Shakespeare's language... the audience can understand the meaning of every word." Nytheatre.com said, "A well acted marvel of economy and energy... Fresh and accessible... As involving and engaging a production as I think it's possible to have."
Emboldened by these successes, TBTB tackles Romeo and Juliet with four actors playing all of the roles, without cutting a single scene, character or entrance. As Shakespeare's company made more money, the playwright wrote for larger casts, but Romeo and Juliet is an early play, created when he likely worked with a smaller company. It's designed as a quartet; key doubles are Juliet/Mercutio, Romeo/Lady Capulet, Nurse/Friar and Capulet/Benvolio. The doubling brings out the sense of fun in the play, joining its sad and joyous elements into an exuberant life - affirming whole.
Tickets can be purchased a www.ticketcentral.com
Use the code JULI for $20 tickets.
Posted by Nancy at January 23, 2008 04:06 PM