The Weird Sisters Theatre Collective's Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet was a very Austin event. The Sisters performed Anne-Marie MacDonald's broad feminist satire of Shakespeare and stuffy scholars in the backyard at the one and only Cathedral of Junk in South Austin, just a few blocks south of 290W/Ben White Boulevard.
Closing night last Saturday was full, as a wide mix of folks filled up the very miscellaneous and inventive collection of chairs. Proprietor Vince Hannemann was rustling up seats right up till the opening, and he received a special ovation from the Sisters and the audience afterward, for his broad-spirited hosting.
This was theatre, but it was also a party and a celebration.
The fun-loving feminist group was doing its fifth summer production. Their lengthy 2004 manifesto remains very in effect. It begins, "WEIRD: We mean WEIRD in its original sense: wayward . We challenge the status quo, for we know that most theater drifts and defaults to old, hegemonic ways of interpreting, casting, directing, and producing."
This is a loopy "what-if?" story about a woman academic, much neglected, misled and patronized by her thoughtlessly arrogant male supervisor.
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
