let's start with the thumbnail review- I found it entertaining - if problematic and Phil found it a catastrophe/disaster/abomination (I believe he used all of the words)
a few flaws were mere annoyances - the drifting accent of one shepherd which moved across the south to some bizarre Cajun-like rendition of the phrases Shakespeare wrote for cadences that were so at variance with what we heard last night as to make it unrecognizable as Shakespeare in all but a few scenes and characters... The hip hop versions of some scenes were disconcerting, but nothing like the Robin Williams-esque riff that overtook the clown/jester character in a far too long and contrived monologue-
one who pulled off some of the beauty of Shakespeare's metered phrasing was the character of Rosalind while disguised as Ganymede. She was thoroughly entertaining.
however- the distractions frequently overtook the potential clarity of the rather (of course) complex story line... throughout the entire evening people were climbing up and down on giant ribbons- while an interesting gymnastic feat, it was less than pertinent to the narrative or setting but for a few short scenes where the characters were to be up in trees in the forest...
of course- this is a student production and they have none of the commercial worries a theater troupe might have so can take chances and be avant-garde... nevertheless one would have hoped for a bit more finesse with the Bard's prose...
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our Rosalind/Ganymede- the strongest of the troupe when it came to the cadences of Shakespearian meter-
the rest of the cast members- as I said the stage was littered with characters- not all of whom were essential to the tale and some good editing might have been a worthy endeavor...
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so perhaps not the best evening of theater we have seen but the edgy production did bring plenty to like (or not like) -
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