Theater Review by Walter Murphy . . .
Parodies require broad knowledge of their source materials. So, not all works are good sources. They need to be well-established and well-known. What better sources than the plays of Shakespeare (the Bard) to parody? For instance, what if Juliet of Romeo and Juliet fame didn’t kill herself? And what other well-known Shakespearean heroines died tragically who could be prime targets for parody? That is the premise of Juliet: A Revenge Comedy playing at the SoHo Playhouse as part of the Fringe Encore series.
One must suspend the sanctity and gravitas usually afforded Shakespeare plays and surrender to a delightful skewering of some of the Bard’s famous heroines and himself. They are re-imagined as suicide survivors, with one exception. It is a very silly show, proudly so.
Juliet decides not to kill herself and chooses life. Wham! She is then visited by a series of Shakespearean heroines, each with problems with how the Bard portrayed them. The vehicle to travel to different locations is a magical book: The Complete Works of Shakespeare. What is written within is how the story unfolds.
The first stop on Juliet’s magical misery tour is Scotland, where she meets Lady Macbeth. The Lady is a bit annoyed at the incompetence of some Witches for failing to kill her husband. If that isn’t bad enough, she has a nasty case of psoriasis: “Out, out damned spot!”
The duo march on to Denmark, where they meet Ophelia from Hamlet. Although mild-mannered and compliant enough, Ophelia constantly complains that her role in the play is too small, so she hates Shakespeare, “He’s the one who let Hamlet take all the good lines.”
The next entry from the book brings the now trio to Egypt where they meet the snake-obsessed, topless sex addict Cleopatra. Vain and sexy, she explains that she doesn’t want to hang with the girls: “I, Cleopatra, am immortal. A divine being. I let those snakes take my life and then I am reborn.” She then appears at the next destination and is not happy about her salvation. “How dare you deign to make any sort of decision for me! If I want my snakies to bite my tender nipples and chew me into the next life, that’s my CHOICE!” Onward.
Welcome next to Prospero’s Island where the not merry band of suicide survivors meet Prospero from The Tempest and his sheltered daughter Miranda. Here the passive Miranda becomes smitten with Cleopatra, lustily so. The story turns bawdy. Confused about the point of the visit by the heroines, and the book that brought them to the island, she asks, “So what, like, a book club? I’ve never been to a club before. I’m homeschooled. Is Cleopatra in the club?”
Eventually, the cause of their trouble, Shakespeare, appears and explains that they always held the power to change their lives and deaths. He created them using words and they could change their fates by rewriting their roles. In spite of his way with words and wisdom, the ladies had other plans for their revenge: “Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
The three-person cast—Lili Beaudoin as Juliet, Ryan Gladstone as Witches, Nurses, Prospero, and Shakespeare, and Carly Pokoradi as the approximately 20 other characters—was delightful, joyful, and funny. Pokoradi was extraordinary. She used unique voices, gestures, and postures so that the audience could easily identify the character speaking—no small task given the speed of the dialogue towards the end of the play, with the five heroines on stage simultaneously.
Written by Pippa Mackie and Ryan Gladstone, the snappy script has wordplay aplenty, and slang recast into Old English—Robert’s your father’s brother (Bob’s your uncle)—and running gags, like Juliet’s inability to pronounce “banished.”
From the start, the play’s a thing of mischief. According to Shakespeare “. . . this is my complete works. The best-selling book of all time. Well, just behind the Bible, Eat, Pray, Love, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I know. It’s like the third one, so random.” And funny.
Juliet: A Revenge Comedy. Through March 1 is at the SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam Street, between Sixth Avenue and Varick Street). www.sohoplayhouse.com
Photos: Cameron Anderson
