OUTER ELSINORE: A SECOND VISIT TO BARD’S HAMLET

OUTER ELSINORE: A SECOND VISIT TO BARD’S HAMLET

I returned to Bard on the Beach’s Hamlet to see Chirag Naik in the title role. (In a scheduled change, he has taken over from Nadeem Phillip Umar Khitab.) The news isn’t good. Naik overacts, and that exacerbates an underlying problem with director Stephen Drover’s...
TWELFTH NIGHT: My Second Review, Seven Weeks In

TWELFTH NIGHT: My Second Review, Seven Weeks In

This production is so much better than it was when I saw it on its second night way back in June — and that’s a triumph for the actors. I returned to this show primarily because I wanted to see Camille Legg’s Viola. Just before Twelfth Night opened at Bard on the...
MEASURE FOR MEASURE: A Disastrous Misinterpretation

MEASURE FOR MEASURE: A Disastrous Misinterpretation

Measure for Measure is about brutal sexual coercion. But, in his adaptation, director Jivesh Parasram frames the play as broad comedy — and he thinks he’s doing abuse survivors a favour. In the story, Duke Vincenzio is concerned about the number of brothels in Vienna...
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS: Some Errors, Some Comedy

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS: Some Errors, Some Comedy

Watching this production of The Comedy of Errors is kind of like waiting in a two-hour lineup for a 15-minute ride. The show doesn’t really pay off until the very end. Before that, it burbles along pleasantly enough, but it’s weirdly shapeless. So what’s going on? A...
HAMLET: Unexpected Elsinore

HAMLET: Unexpected Elsinore

Clarity is both the blessing and the curse of director Stephen Drover’s production of Hamlet — mostly the blessing. I was grateful to have some parts of the story more clearly defined than they’ve ever been for me. But it’s also important to remember that the play is...