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The best of Bard on the Beach

by | Jul 15, 2016 | Review | 0 comments

If you can only see one show, I’d go for Pericles. The play is hardly ever produced—and you’re never going to see it done again like director Lois Anderson is doing it here. Anderson has ripped the not-very-good text apart and pasted it back together in a new order and with new material, including snippets from Rumi and Euripides. In doing so, she has turned a rambling, episodic play—much of which was not written by Shakespeare—into an enchanting fairytale. 

Physically, the show is gorgeous. Just wait for the moment when the horse appears. You’ll see what I mean.

The Merry Wives of Windsor is also tons of fun. Director Johnna Wright sets this second-tier comedy in an Ontario legion in 1968. It’s open-mic night, so characters keep breaking into song. You might think that this sounds dreadful—I did before I saw it in action—but trust me: Wright’s conceit serves the script and it works gangbusters. I have never enjoyed Merry Wivesso much.

Insider tip: don’t be a dope and wait till the end of the summer to buy your tickets; everything will be sold out. Book now.

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