Shotspeare is way not just for Shakespeare buffs. In fact, I’m sure that some Deeply Serious Shakespeare-ophiles will be Deeply Offended by it. But rowdy, indeed bawdy humor was common in Elizabethan times. Shotspeare fits right into that.
The small venue that’s the Playhouse at Westport is pretty much perfect for a show that involves a lot of audience contact before the actual play begins and continues during the intermission. Said contact involves vodka and, to a lesser degree, beer being proffered to audience members who are interested. (I declined and no one made a big deal of it.) The players are doing Romeo and Juliet. Well, sort of. Five cast members and one audience member, a fellow who performed his duties on opening night with considerable elan, attack a much-abbreviated script with large amounts of what seems like (but probably isn’t) adlibbing and some fast, funny costume changes. They’re putting away the alcohol too, or at least it seems that way. Certainly the beer is definitely Pestalozzi Street’s Finest, and the vodka for the audience is the real thing. If the actual cast is downing vodka at the rate they have us believe, they may have a gastroenterologist on retainer.
The language is frequently X-rated, if that bothers anyone. Lots of physical comedy, some of which is equally free-wheeling. A fair amount of throwing rolled-up athletic socks also occurs, the socks being far cleaner than either of the two previous items.
It’s an excuse to laugh and see a group of quite gifted actors – Westport never hands out cast lists, so I can only say that Matthew Morgan, Brandon Breault, Heidi Brucker Morgan, Brian David Sloan, Tyler Moss and Timur Kocak all work very hard to make it look easy. And when they occasionally break into unexpected classical Shakespeare, they carry it off well. Many of them, if not all, have some serious Shakespearean background. Matthew Morgan adapted the script and directs.
How fitting is it that the code word VODKA can get a discount on tickets? Just don’t expect a night of anything but silliness. They’re dark this Thanksgiving weekend, but return for two more weeks immediately following.
Shotspeare
through December 8
The Playhouse at Westport
Westport Plaza
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