‘Pride and Prejudice’ Gets a Gender-Bending Contemporary Twist

June 20, 2019June 20, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

(Cast of Actor’s Shakespeare Project’s ‘Pride & Prejudice. PHOTO CREDIT NILE SCOTT STUDIOS)

Reviewed by Shelley A. Sackett

‘Pride and Prejudice’ –Written by Kate Hamill; Adapted from the novel by Jane Austen; Directed by Christopher V. Edwards; Choreography by Alexandra Beller; Sound Design by Ian Scot; Lighting Design by Deb Sullivan. Presented by Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Balch Arena Theater, 40 Talbot Ave., Medford, through June 29.

Jane Austen, the 19^th century author of ‘Sense and Sensibility’, ‘Pride and Prejudice’, ‘Mansfield Park’ and ‘Emma’ did not hide the ball. Marriage in sexist Regency England is the central theme of all her novels, which she penned under the pseudonym “A Lady.” The laws of coverture, which governed marriage, stripped a wife of all her legal and economic rights, essentially making her a ward of her husband. In the absence of brothers, her family’s fortune would pass to her husband upon her father’s death.

Confessions of a Revolutionary Preacher – ASP’s ‘Nat Turner in Jerusalem’

February 5, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Brandon G. Green, Lewis D. Wheeler in ‘Nat Turner in Jerusalem’ (Photos by Nile Scott Shots)

by Deanna Dement Myers

‘Nat Turner in Jerusalem’ – Written by Nathan Alan Davis. Directed by Benny Sato Ambush; Scenic Design by Janie E. Howland Director; Costume Design by A.W. Nadine Grant,; Sound Design by Dewey Dellay; Lighting Design by Aja M. Jackson. Presented by the Actors Shakespeare Project in collaboration with Hibernian Hall, at Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley St., Roxbury through February 24

“The uprisings will never cease until injustice ceases.”

In August 1831, thrice-sold Nat Turner, an educated preacher, led a two-day uprising of enslaved and free African American people that shook not only Jerusalem, Virginia, but our whole nation. Turner acted upon visions and signs from God, who called him to lead his people out of bondage. Approximately fifty white men, women and children were killed in the uprising, and the militia that retaliated murdered twice as many people of color, most who were not rebels. No white person was ever tried for their part in this horrific event. This insurrection lead to oppressive legislation designed to prohibit the education, movement and assembly of enslaved people. Turner was caught after two months on the run, tried, convicted and sentenced to hang until dead, dead, dead.

ASP Delivers a Stunning, Satisfying “MacBeth”

October 9, 2018October 10, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Michele Markarian

MacBeth. Written by William Shakespeare, in a modern verse translation by Migdalia Cruz. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. Presented by Actors’ Shakespeare Project, The United Parish in Brookline, 210 Harvard Street, Brookline through November 11.

As you walk into the nave of The United Parish of Boston, the setting for Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s “MacBeth”, you feel a deep sense of foreboding. Now okay, anyone familiar with the play has a pretty good idea of what they’re in for, but Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s productions are always wonderfully and dramatically atmospheric, and this show is no exception. Jon Savage’s stark, wood beamed set suggests both elegance and gloom, augmented by Laura Hildebrand’s lighting design and Elizabeth Cahill’s sound design. What follows over the next two and a half hours is one of the more accessible and affecting productions of “MacBeth” that I have ever seen.

This is a ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Worth Seeing Multiple Midsummer Nights

May 21, 2017May 21, 2017 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By CJ Williams

‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ – Directed by Patrick Swanson; Written by William Shakespeare; Stage Management by Marsha Smith; Composition & Sound Design by David Reiffel; Set Design by Eric Levenson; Puppetry & Design by Elizabeth Rocha; Costume Design by Jessica Pribble; Lighting Design by Deb Sullivan. Presented by Actor’s Shakespeare Project at the Multicultural Center, 41 2^nd Street Cambridge, MA through June 4.

Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s take on “Midsummer Night’s Dream” is both a faithful and thoroughly up-to-date rendition of a classic. But that’s what Shakespeare, performed and produced well, is in a nutshell: timeless. Not every cast or production team can pull that kind of rabbit out of the theatrical hat, though – even the best productions of the Bard often end up slogging through a sad stodgy seriousness in using the centuries old Elizabethan cant, costume, and anything else historical they can get their hands on. (Either that, or they blow it all on a modern spin that mangles the wordplay and subtlety of the language.)