director: Doug Scholz-Carlsoncast: Jacob Bell, Jennice Butler, Andrew Carlson, Dane Clark, Kylie Edmonds, Adam Habben, Rachael Jenison, Amy Malcom, Marianne Miller, Eva Nelson, Lucinda Rogers, Michael Rubke, Christopher Thompson, Max Wojtanowicz
Shakespeare's rarely performed fairy tale.
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This was performed by GRSF's Acting Apprentice company (generally college students) and, while generally fairly good, certainly had the feel of a good college production.
There were aspects of the direction that made me wonder just what the heck was going on (the marching upstage of the action was distracting and out of place).
The script has problems (how can you not laugh when, in Act V, Scene V, as all the confessions are being made and identities being revealed, Cornelius says, "I left out one thing...") -- a lack of focus and a too convenient wrapping up of revelations. Sometimes it's nice to see that even the greatest playwright who ever lived managed to write some less than stellar work.
Even so, there manages to be some kind of a power that Shakespeare has and it is a joy to listen to his words (when done well).
I did find it curious that it was billed as a "tragedy." There really are no tragic elements in this, and when I asked the director, he said they did so because it was titled as a tragedy in the folio from which they took this work. Curious. I appreciate their deire to be as authentic as possible, but it actually seemed to add to some confusion (on my part, at least).
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