Pittsburgh in the Round: This early (circa 1594) Shakespeare play is often presented as a broad farce with lots of slapstick, mugging, leering and physical hijinks. The Carnegie Mellon School of Drama show directed by the well-traveled Don Wadsworth lives up to that convention, if not more so.
It’s 90 minutes of uninterrupted comedy that the young and fit CMU students perform without letup, jousting with long metal whisks, brooms, umbrellas, a round squash painted with an angry face and even a baguette that functions as a club and part of the male anatomy. Parisian bakers would not be happy.
2 comments:
I think this critic did a much better job of reviewing this show than the one from the Pittsburgh Current. I think what they say about the drawbacks of cutting the play down ring true; however, I feel like this is an unfortunate byproduct of a more essential goal which is to make the show overall more digestible, even if that means missing some of the introductions of the more minor characters. I had not fully considered the more serious topics that are being portrayed in this show until reading this, but they are definitely worth considering. In our production I feel like they were lost for the most part, but I do not know if many other productions have been able to bring those out while maintaining the humor in it all at the same time. That is a fine line to walk that would really be impressive to see done by the director and cast, because it would need the coordination of every person onstage and involved down to the letter.
I think this review really captured the vision that Don was trying to get across much better than other reviews of the show. To only congratulate the actors for their performance is not enough, the physical demand that this show required was truly amazing and the actors appeared to show little to no fatigue throughout the run. It was unfortunate that the door, being the centerpiece of the show, had to face troubles during this one production, but that is what you get with live theatre. I always appreciate critics that acknowledge that something always goes wrong in live theatre and are able to move passed hiccups like that one. This review really seemed to understand the vision that Sasha was trying to get across with her beautiful scenic design and how the actors used the space. Being a student at Carnegie Mellon, it is really refreshing to see that the general audience also appreciates the work that my fellow peers put so much time and effort into.
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