The Morning After--The Globe Does Not Agree
Although we saw the same performance, the Globe's reviewer didn't have as good I time as I did.
'The Beard' tries too hard with the Bard
By Louise Kennedy, Globe Staff | July 7, 2006
Shakespeare blends high and low comedy so seamlessly that he makes the trick look easy. When lesser minds attempt it, though, it too often becomes obvious just how hard it is.
Take ``The Beard of Avon," in which Amy Freed throws high-flying lyricism and bottom-dwelling puns at the Shakespeare authorship question. Freed wants to engage large questions about creativity and love; she also wants to get quick laughs with faux-Elizabethan anachronisms (``You do deprive me of my necessary space") and bawdy sight gags involving sausage. Maybe the Bard could pull it off. ``The Beard," no matter how hard the Publick Theatre tries to make it fly, just can't.
At least she praised Kuttner's Will-- and the cast generally. It is such a relief to have local critics acknowledge that our local actors can cope with Shakespeare. The Boston Shakespeare Co. of thirty years ago was good, but nothing they did impressed the papers. Some of those same people now have national reputations-- and our Actors Shakespeare Project just took King Lear to NYC and came away with praise.
'The Beard' tries too hard with the Bard
By Louise Kennedy, Globe Staff | July 7, 2006
Shakespeare blends high and low comedy so seamlessly that he makes the trick look easy. When lesser minds attempt it, though, it too often becomes obvious just how hard it is.
Take ``The Beard of Avon," in which Amy Freed throws high-flying lyricism and bottom-dwelling puns at the Shakespeare authorship question. Freed wants to engage large questions about creativity and love; she also wants to get quick laughs with faux-Elizabethan anachronisms (``You do deprive me of my necessary space") and bawdy sight gags involving sausage. Maybe the Bard could pull it off. ``The Beard," no matter how hard the Publick Theatre tries to make it fly, just can't.
At least she praised Kuttner's Will-- and the cast generally. It is such a relief to have local critics acknowledge that our local actors can cope with Shakespeare. The Boston Shakespeare Co. of thirty years ago was good, but nothing they did impressed the papers. Some of those same people now have national reputations-- and our Actors Shakespeare Project just took King Lear to NYC and came away with praise.
posted by G.L.Horton at 2:30 PM
1 Comments:
Edward de Vere's life closely paralleled the story told in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Polonius seems a lot like Cecil Burghley whose ward he was. His brother's name was Horace. Ah, but you can read all about it in my poem "The Man Who Wrote Shakespeare".
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