Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Funny stuff at Shakespeare & Company

Shakespeare knows how to have fun
The cast has as much fun as the audience. (Kevin Sprague photos)

Memorial Day weekend brought with it the openings of two superb, if serious, plays. I Am My Own Wife at Barrington Stage Company and The Caretaker at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. So it was a welcome change of pace when Shakespeare & Company decided to open with a superb reworking of Georges Feydeau's French Farce, The Ladies Dressmaker, under the title of The Ladies Man.

If you missed my rave review over at Berkshire Fine Arts, well, you really should read the full account of this fun evening:

Larry Murray's Review of The Ladies Man

The biggest delight of the evening was the re-discovery of Elizabeth Aspenlieder's immense comedic talents. In a note after the performance, she wrote that she had worked hard on her " 47 entrances and exits…wild! In fact so much so I tore all my intercostals during rehearsals last week…we are all bruised and beaten but are having a ball." As I said in my review, farce is hard work, especially if you want to make it all look so easy.

I have said it before, and repeat again: do not miss this production, things this funny only come along once in a great while! The Ladies Man runs all Summer long.

The Shakespeare & Co. website

Next opening for them will be Alls Well That Ends Well later this month. I will be reviewing that one as well.

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