The Court Theatre concludes its 2010-2011 season with an adaptation of operatic proportions with a newly-developed stage version of the Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. This work is significant if only by virtue of the feat of acquiring the licensing agreements alone, and grappling with its fraught history on the stage and in film. This adaptation—a form gaining greater prestige as a unique kind of creative act—required a lot of condensing a reshaping in terms of the libretto and orchestrations by music director Doug Peck in order to maintain the essence of the work for the small stage, ensuring that this production is no small experience.
While I write and review plays and films here for fun, usually vaguely related to Early Modern British literature, on occasion I do the same for the professional sphere. My review of Sean Graney’s adaptation of The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare was recently published in Shakespeare Bulletin. In this post I have included a short excerpt from the piece, as well as links to those interested in the publication.
Posted by Elizabeth E. Tavares.
This weekend, WYW continues their foray into eighteenth-century English comedy with Wycherley’s infamous The Country Wife. Performing work from the Restoration is arguably often trickier than tackling the usual Shakespearean fare; there is a much smaller performance tradition and precedent from which to build. However, the student troupe seems to have taken their time in order to deliver this well-considered production. Director Eric Krull’s thematic reading of the play as “good girls gone bad” nicely emphasizes the problem of decorum getting in the way of desire at this play’s core.
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