|
|
|
reviewBare Theatre Review “Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead” lacks that special something, Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter Sir Tom Stoppard’s multiple-award-winning absurdist tragicomedy ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, performed on July 30-August 3 by Bare Theatre’s youthful Rogue Company at Common Ground Theatre in Durham, NC, takes its title from two not-so-nice minor characters -- college classmates and friends and confidants of the title character in William Shakespeare’s HAMLET -- who betray the melancholy Dane at the behest of King Claudius and pay for their treachery with their lives. The gender-blind casting of Bare Theatre managing director Heather J. Hackford and artistic director Carmen-maria Mandley, who co-directed this production of ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD with a bit more shouting than was absolutely necessary, gave Common Ground Theatre audiences a female Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Tara Pozo and Maura Clement) and a female Prince Hamlet (Sasha Brown). Pozo and Clement are effective, but Brown’s characterization is much less compelling and entirely too petulant. Guest artist Khoa Pham is good as that wise old windbag Polonius; Matt Fields and Janie Cole are a bit nondescript as King Claudius and Queen Gertrude; and Jen Harper gamely tackles the role of Hamlet’s much-abused sweetheart Ophelia -- with mixed results. But Jake Bowden’s menacing interpretation of the Player owes more to the movies A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and MAD MAX and/or the television programs of World Wrestling Entertainment than to Shakespeare. All in all, Bare Theatre’s production of ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD lacked a lot of that special something that won dramatist Tom Stoppard and his existential play the 1967 London EVENING STANDARD Award for Most Promising Playwright and the 1968 Tony Award® for Best Play, New York Critics Award for Best Play of the Year, Prix Italia, and Plays and Players Award for Best New Play BARE THEATRE: http://www.baretheatre.org/next.html. COMMON GROUND THEATRE: http://cgtheatre.com/events. INTERNET OFF-BROADWAY DATABASE: http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=2005. INTERNET BROADWAY DATABASE: http://www.ibdb.com/show.php?id=7644. INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100519/. STARK RAVING SANE (unofficial fan site for the play and film): http://www.starkravingsane.co.nr/. TOM STOPPARD: http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=8912 (Internet Broadway Database) and http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001779/ (Internet Movie Database). |