Oct. 27th, 2006

xiphias: (Default)
Tonight was the opening night of the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble's production of The Tempest, running 8 pm this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and again next week on November 2 through 4.

The short version: one of the fantastic things about living in Boston is college (and community) theater -- for less than the price of a movie ticket, you can see live theater, and this is an example of how much of a good thing this is. It's well worth the $8 a ticket it costs -- at that price, how can you go wrong? It's a hell of a fun way to spend two hours.

Lis (aka [livejournal.com profile] cheshyre and [livejournal.com profile] riba_rambles) had never seen the play, and I haven't seen it in long enough that I only remembered the barest outline, and this production was a fine introduction and re-introduction. They played it straight -- no tricky staging or unusual period setting, and did it quite competently and enjoyably. Nothing fancy, just straight-up Shakespeare done by people who clearly understand their characters and the play, and are having fun. And how can you avoid having fun seeing such a production?
ExpandDetails within: I'll try to avoid spoilers as much as possible. First, the cast )
ExpandComments on the production itself )
So, to summarize: if you've never seen The Tempest, or it's been a few years, this is an excellent, straightforward production, and you should see it. If you've seen The Tempest a lot, then presumably you like the play, and you should therefore see it.

It's playing Thursday (which already happened), Friday, and Saturday of this week, and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of next week, at MIT's Little Kresge Theater (that's the theater downstairs in the Kresge building, y'know, the little one, the one under the big Kresge Auditorium). It's $8 a ticket. Even if it was a bad production, it would be worth seeing at that price -- and this is in no sense a bad production. True, it's amateurish in parts, but I don't count that against amateur theater. I think Shakespeare would approve. More importantly, I think you will approve when you see it.

November 2018

S M T W T F S
     123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930 

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

Expand All Cut TagsCollapse All Cut Tags