Reviews from Elsewhere: An Evening of Klingon Shakespeare, Washington Shakespeare Company

Thanks to @shakespearecub for a link to this March 2011 review by Eddie Pasa at therogersrevue.wordpress.com:

Washington Shakespeare Company's 'By Any Other Name'

by Eddie Pasa

“You have never experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.”
– Chancellor Gorkon, from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
production draft, dated 12/28/90

At first glance, it’s a relatively throwaway and rather humorous line from a Star Trek movie.
Upon second glance, some saw it as a challenge.

With a third glance, the challenge becomes a once-in-a-lifetime event… well, technically, a twice-in-a-lifetime event.

As the Klingon language has achieved a worldwide cult status, it seemed only a matter of time before someone put pen to paper and translated Shakespeare into Klingon. Maybe it was on a lark; maybe some people took it way too seriously. With the participation of the creator of the Klingon language, Marc Okrand, Washington Shakespeare Company mounted a one-night-only show titled By Any Other Name: An Evening of Shakespeare in Klingon in September 2010. Originally a fundraising event, this night featured humorous stories from both Okrand and George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu in the original television show and resulting films.

The show was a runaway success; due to popular demand and a fortuitous coincidence involving the British Broadcasting Corporation, WSC remounted this show for another one-night-only presentation on Sunday, February 27.

Read more at the Rogers Review . . . .

New Shakespeare: Zombies in Denmark, Washington DC

And now, thanks to @shakespearecub, something completely different and completely elsewhere: zombies in Denmark at the Rorschach Theatre, Washington DC!





Zombies Breathe New Life Into Shakespeare

By Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 31, 2009

Rorschach Theatre's Living Dead in Denmark features as its heroine a resurrected Ophelia. Yes, that Ophelia, the melancholy Dane's drowned love interest from Shakespeare's tragic play. Still, the production is no "Hamlet" sequel.

Rather, it's a mash-up of the Bard, a comic book adventure, kung fu movies . . . and zombies. Coming to the aid of Ophelia (Amy Quiggins) in her battle against the army of the undead that has taken over Elsinore in playwright Qui Nguyen's pop-cultural pastiche are two of Shakespeare's best-loved (and deadest) female characters from other plays: Juliet (Megan Reichelt) and Lady Macbeth (Katie Atkinson).

The genesis of the play was straightforward enough. At least according to Nguyen, a self-described "geek playwright" with an "impatient mind" who co-founded the Vampire Cowboys, a New York-based theater company specializing in spoofs of such action genres as blaxploitation and samurai movies.

Read more at WashingtonPost.com . . . .

15 Seconds of Fame

The Washington DC Shakespeare Company has its own blog, hosted (as is Austin Live Theatre) by blogspot.com. I was surprised and pleased to find Austin Live Theatre the first of several blogs quoted there on The Imaginary Invalid, back on July 3. Returning the compliment:

Thursday, July 03, 2008
What People Are Saying...

The Imaginary Invalid runs at the Lansburgh Theatre until July 27, 2008.










Photo of Nancy Robinette and Rene Auberjonois by Carol Rosegg.

Read what some bloggers are saying:

Austin Live Theatre says, "Rubber-faced René Auberjonois is a self-mocking delight as Molière playing one of his most famous characters. The actors’ diction is uniformly superb throughout, mime and business are subtle and so manifold that one could attend three nights in a row and not catch all the physical jokes."

"The production is a hoot," says Wheat and Weeds.









Photo of the cast of The Imaginary Invalid by Carol Rosegg.

IdealistDC raves, "There is singing, there is dancing, laughter throughout and bits of dark and raunchy adult humor that makes going to the theatre fun and exciting!"

"Helmed by a wonderfully expressive Rene Auberjonois and a sparkling Nancy Robinette, this is one of the strongest ensembles I’ve seen at STC in a long time," exclaims DC Metblogs.