This morning’s Wall Street Journal featured a triple-review of The Taster, Richard III and The Winter’s Tale. Here’s what they had to say:
‘The Taster’…is a winner, a serious comedy that is both witty and unselfconsciously poetic.
Shakespeare & Company is putting on … two mainstage Shakespeare productions that are as good as anything you’ll see anywhere. That’s no surprise—I’ve long thought Shakespeare & Company to be this country’s most satisfying summer theater festival—but ‘Richard III’ and ‘The Winter’s Tale’ are exceptional even by the company’s own high standards.
Read the whole review at WSJ.com »
Mengelberg and Mahler opened Saturday in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre. The Boston Globe called it “passionate…filled with nuance, detail…charm and sly humor…sophisticated and enlightening.”
Robert Lohbauer, longtime weapons master at Shakespeare & Company, plays Mengelberg with passionate commitment in the company’s handsome premiere, directed by Dutch filmmaker Emile Fallaux
…
[Playwright Daniel] Klein doesn’t let the play fall solidly on one side or the other, but rather allows it, and us, to dwell in complexity. His background as a philosopher who can make abstruse concepts accessible — he’s the coauthor of the best-selling “Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar’’ — serves him well in laying out these ideas with concision and style.
Mengelberg and Mahler is now on stage in repertory in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, through September 10. Buy tickets now »
The Boston Globe publishes their review of Women of Will today, and in it Louise Kennedy calls Tina Packer’s work “an intensely theatrical experience”:
Drawing on her lifetime of acting in and directing Shakespeare’s plays, Packer combines the performance of scenes with the discussion of themes to create a dazzling and illuminating piece of work. For anyone who cares about women, Shakespeare, or especially women in Shakespeare, it’s not to be missed.
Read the review at Boston.com »
Women of Will is now on stage at Founders’ Theatre through July 24.
Shakespeare & Company’s first-ever Holiday production, Cindy Bella (or The Glass Slipper) plays its second and final weekend—the show closes Sunday after just eleven performances. Written by Irina Brook and Anna Brownsted and directed by Brook, the show’s modern take on the classic Cinderella story has been welcomed by the critics:
“a silly bit of Holiday wackiness…Take the kids.”
—Berkshire Fine Arts
“an enjoyable evening of silliness and schtick, complete with a magical, fairy-tale happy ending”
—Berkshire Living
“a lot of fun, just the thing to brighten the holiday season”
—Advocate Weekly
Our fall production The Hound of the Baskervilles opened this weekend with enthusiastic—and full—houses! The reviews so far have been similarly exciting:
“If your idea of fun is two hours of laugh upon laugh, you’re guaranteed a good time.”
—Boston Globe
“Laugh-out-loud funny all the way though. Amazingly entertaining.”
—Berkshire Living
“Part Monty Python, partly Marx Brothers, and totally screwy. This is a show for all ages, and not to be missed. Shakespeare & Company still makes theatre more than fun, they make it downright hilarious. The Hound of the Baskervilles is the funniest Sherlock Holmes mystery that you will ever see.”
—Berkshire Fine Arts
Buy tickets now! The Hound of the Baskervilles plays through November 8. Click here to see even more production photos.
The New York Times‘ Ben Brantley visited Shakespeare & Company this week to weigh in on Twelfth Night and The Dreamer Examines His Pillow. What follows are just a couple of the wonderful things he had to say:
“Even theatergoers who caught the Public Theater’s star-powered “Twelfth Night” in Central Park this summer should consider revisiting the play in Lenox, though there’s not a celebrity in sight. Mr. Croy and company have ingeniously made this comedy of lost and found identities a vicarious voyage into the light…” Read the full review
And also, regarding John Douglas Thompson:
“Repertory is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? It allows an actor like Mr. Thompson the relief of moving from the in-the-moment passion of Othello to the recollected passion of Dreamer. And it allows theatergoers the treat of seeing an admirable performer confidently shift keys from blazing fury to quiet contemplation…” Read the full review
And did you see the fantastic New York Times article about Tina Packer earlier this month?
The reviews are in for J.T. Rogers’ White People, directed by Anna Brownsted, a “provocative and funny” (The Arts Fuse) account of three ordinary Americans as they deal their own prejudices and guilt, and the consequences of their actions. These three “absorbing, ultimately wrenching stories” (The Valley Advocate) are being told in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre through next Friday, September 4th only.
White People features Jason Asprey (also playing Hamlet), Michael Hammond (playing Iago in Othello) and Dana Harrison. Buy tickets now.
Check out our interview with the playwright J.T. Rogers right here:
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