Rachel Cairns’ Ophelia snuggles up to Jonathon Young in Hamlet
There are a bunch of good shows up this summer. Here are my picks.
Of the shows I’ve seen at Bard on the Beach (Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and Elizabeth Rex), I highly recommend Hamlet. In her contemporary staging, director Kim Collier goes a little tech-crazy, but she gets so many other things right—including the play’s murderous suspense. And you’ve really got to see Jonathon Young’s Danish prince. There are terrific performances in Twelfth Night (Jonathon Young again as Feste, and Rachel Cairns as Viola), but Dennis Garnhum’s seaside-resort concept is tacked on and overly light. Elizabeth Rex is not a great play, but Colleen Wheeler and Haig Sutherland’s performances area terrific. I haven’t seen director John Murphy’s take on Measure for Measure yet, but I look forward to it.
As well as Hamlet, I highly recommend two musicals: Legally Blonde at TUTS (I’ve already seen it twice), and Avenue Q at the Arts Club. The material in both is witty and both are extremely well performed and directed (by Valerie Easton and Peter Jorgensen respectively.)
Have fun out there.
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