As You Will
Created by Conor D Mullen, David Brummer & George Hider
10th Annual Queerly Festival presented by FRIGID New York
Under St. Marks at 94 St Marks Place, NYC
June 27th and August 1st
Was ever theatre in this way woo’d?
Was ever theatre in this way won?
In fair Saint Mark’s is where we set our scene.
Down below, ‘neath shops, are the players seen.
Improv, perhaps not improve on the Bard.
Keeping this rhyming up is really hard.
There’s a reason ale was sold in Shakespeare’s Globe, and a reason why you often see improv showtimes are after the sun sets. Adults need to separate from work and life to enjoy the silly. This show is silly. And there is nothing wrong with that!
The troupe of five players takes to the stage and asks the audience for a title of a Shakespearean play that never was. Many, Many More came to life on Thursday night filled with familiar Shakespearean tropes: The Unloved Son (Orlando, As You Like It); The Conniving Daughter (Goneril or Reagan, King Lear); The Old Crone (the three witches, Macbeth); a Bad Dad (Lear, Leonato, Baptista, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, and Taming of the Shrew respectively). These characters set out in search of a plot and found something a little Lear, and little Tempest and made a comedy of it. Hijinks ensued!
There was magic!
There were rhyme couplets!
There were some terrible jokes!
There were some unexpectedly good ones!
And in 50 minutes, Many, Many More graced the stage for one-night-only – its folio lost forever!
So, dear readers, shake off the day, relax and let the troupe do all the work. Let them create at a fevered pace for your enjoyment. Indulge in one of the beverages on hand.Fear not that you missed last night’s performance, for this talented troupe will create another, and another and another, or as in the play, Many, Many More!!!
Anon.
Produced by Conor Mullen & Maureen Fenninger
Click HERE for tickets.
Reviewed by Nicole Jesson.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on June 29th, 2024. All rights reserved.