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Tomorrow afternoon/evening, at 1700, in Arlington, at Robbins Farm Park (right near the water tower -- you know, the one with the big steep hill that's fantastic for sledding, and from which you can see the Boston fireworks on the Fourth of July), the New England Shakespeare Festival will be putting on The Comedy of Errors.
Now, New England Shakespeare Festival is gimmicky -- their gimmick is that they put on the plays without rehearsal (except for the fights and dances), and trade parts randomly before each performance, so NOBODY knows their lines. They work from attempting to memorize their lines before each scene, and from cue scripts they carry with them.
They CLAIM that this is more authentic to how Shakespeare and his troupe performed, since they had DOZENS of plays in repertory, in rapid rotation, never playing the same thing two days in a row, and, therefore, the actors had to cram, memorize fast, and cheat from rolled-up cue-scripts called "rolls", or "roles" (hence the term "role" in a play).
In reality, I doubt that what they put on really is all that authentic, but it IS a hell of a lot of fun.
In general, they do poorly with the dramatic stuff, but extremely well with the funny bits -- and Comedy of Errors is nothing but funny bits. Of all the plays in the Shakespearian canon, I think that this is the one that plays to their strengths best.
So who wants to go with us? We've talked Mom into going, if she can get out of a phone meeting at 1630, which would probably last until 1800. We think we're meeting![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
felis_sidus, too. Who else wants to come? Maybe we can get pizza afterward: my favorite pizza place is Nicola's in Arlington Heights -- the pizza joint around the corner from where I grew up.
And after that, Lis and I are going into Harvard Square, to the Brattle, to see Meatballs, a movie which Lis loved as a kid, and which I have never seen. She rather hopes that it's as good as she remembers it to be. . .
Now, New England Shakespeare Festival is gimmicky -- their gimmick is that they put on the plays without rehearsal (except for the fights and dances), and trade parts randomly before each performance, so NOBODY knows their lines. They work from attempting to memorize their lines before each scene, and from cue scripts they carry with them.
They CLAIM that this is more authentic to how Shakespeare and his troupe performed, since they had DOZENS of plays in repertory, in rapid rotation, never playing the same thing two days in a row, and, therefore, the actors had to cram, memorize fast, and cheat from rolled-up cue-scripts called "rolls", or "roles" (hence the term "role" in a play).
In reality, I doubt that what they put on really is all that authentic, but it IS a hell of a lot of fun.
In general, they do poorly with the dramatic stuff, but extremely well with the funny bits -- and Comedy of Errors is nothing but funny bits. Of all the plays in the Shakespearian canon, I think that this is the one that plays to their strengths best.
So who wants to go with us? We've talked Mom into going, if she can get out of a phone meeting at 1630, which would probably last until 1800. We think we're meeting
felis_sidus, too. Who else wants to come? Maybe we can get pizza afterward: my favorite pizza place is Nicola's in Arlington Heights -- the pizza joint around the corner from where I grew up.And after that, Lis and I are going into Harvard Square, to the Brattle, to see Meatballs, a movie which Lis loved as a kid, and which I have never seen. She rather hopes that it's as good as she remembers it to be. . .