Mostly I write blog posts for friends and family but this one is for the local folks.
Last night I went to see a local college production of Richard III. I rarely go to see live theater, but our friend Allen from the Shoreline Music Team is an actor and a few of us wanted to show up and support him. On the way to the theater Matt Menendez called me and I ended up meeting Evan and him at the door. Once we got inside we found Sam and Monica had come as well. It turns out that this was Sam’s first live theater experience, and he enjoyed it.
There were several other people who didn’t make it out, so I thought I’d give my honest opinion so they know what to expect. The play is an edited version of Shakespeare’s Richard III, cut down from 5 acts to 2 (still 3 hours long) and set in the future. Setting it in the future made for some very interesting visual devices, although apparently cell phones loose out to foot-messengers in another 100 years…
I was never good at audible comprehension of Shakespearean language, so I found it a little rough in the beginning. It takes superb linguistic skill to speak Shakespearean while conveying complete ownership of a role- most of the actors fared ok, though only a handful (including our Allen) of the actors did this well. As the play went on I got a little better at understanding the actors; it was also a lot easier to tell who was who after most of the people were killed off…. In the second act I could see most of the actors settling into their comfort zone and I think this is where the play really took off.
Overall I thought it was a very well done production for a college, especially for an opening night. If you plan to see it, make sure to read through a synopsis of the full Richard III play. Even though it is cut down, there are still enough characters for a 5 act play but not enough time to develop them. It will really add to the performance if you are more familiar with the characters beforehand.
Allen did an excellent job as well and was one of the more prominent characters (also playing a few other supporting characters later in the play). Definitely go see it if you haven’t!
