Quaker Meeting House
Until August 24th (20:20)
Let us enter a world of yays & verilies, doeths & good sirs, & relish the day’s helpings of servings from the infinity cauldron that is Thorn and Petal Stick (New York). The troupe exists for the singular reason of acting, dialoguing & dramarturging as close to the Shakespearean design as possible. A title is pluck’d from the audience – today’s was a Thousand Rainbows -, & the boys work’d well within at least ending the play, after a full hour or so, with some kind of relatable finale to the theme.
Inbetween, I felt we were perhaps being led thro’ some pre-plann’d stock-tropes, sketches & stuff. I might be wrong, & they might have genuinely improvis’d & innovated on the spot for the whole show. But there weren’t so many mentions of the rainbows after the start, so I’m guessing that they do have a stockpile of go-to material. But that’s just dissecting the mechanics, how about the show itself? Well, overall, I found it all a tad silly, but Shakesperean comedy is silly, really, so well done lads, you fully captur’d the anima & did what it says on your tin!
Now, who are these lads, then? Well, we have, on keyboards, Sebastian, who sets a perfect soundscape, easy fingers working the ladders of many a tudor mode. Occasionally, too, Sebastian would join the two main protaganists of the evening for a spot of front-stage action, Hal Munger and Nick Zimmerman, a couple of young-looking fellows, not a whole heap out, I’d say, from a plausible theatrical education at the ‘Children of Paul’s.’ They were great, completely plucking & riding with natural abandon a series of iambic pentameters & other measures, & at all times shining to us in the seats as super-accomplish’d performers, blossoming with wonderful & quick-thinking wits.
I think the key to this show is one’s love of the work of the Bard. Shakesperean English is oftentimes impenetrable, with Thorn & a Petalstick presenting a diluted version, of sorts, but without the magnaminous omniscience of Shakespeare pulling the mannequin strings. Occasionally I was completely enraptur’d by the wordplay, delighted by the dance, per se, but an hour is surely an overlong engagement with romping improvisation, & the main spectacle becomes less about the story, but more about the feat.
Damo
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