Breaking Bard

Seismic Shift Productions—Tom Hendry Warehouse

Shakespeare wonks will tell you that his great tragedies have these themes running throughout: love, ambition, madness, revenge, jealousy, and betrayal. The Spontaneous Shakespeare Company use these motifs plus two suggestions from the audience, and craft an hour-long tragedy that the Bard would have a good snicker at. The cast of five also deftly employ the recognizable tropes – soliloquies, asides, comic relief, and vaguely humorous character names (Malaria? Polio?) – that prove that Shakespeare’s tragedies can be funny. (Maybe funnier than his comedies, but I digress.) For fans of the Bard, this is a faithful homage that will have them laughing in the aisles. Well worth the ticket price.

Karl Eckstrand