Stage Write

  Bard Fest, Indy's only annual Shakespeare Festival, is producing the epic two-play cycle of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer-prize-winning Angels in America. They will present Part One - Millennium Approaches and Part Two - Perestroika in rotation throughout the month. In anticipation of its landmark June premier, some of the cast of Angels in America (AIA) answered some questions about the show. Q: What themes does Shakespeare’s work share with Angels in America? A: Matt Anderson (Louis): Many of Shakespeare’s works are so sweeping and encompassing, stretching out for hours and taking time to delve into love, politics, relationships, self-worth, life and death, prejudices and pain, blood and ghosts, hilarity and horror, the mundanely real and the confoundingly supernatural… and Angels in America explores deeply all of those themes and more. Mira Nehrig (Harper Pitt): Oh, truly, there are so many. Shakespeare would grapple with politics, gender dynamics, and family within one play (wheth...

When the play you’re about to see is a murder mystery called “And Then There Were None”, you know there will be a body count. The deliciously dark Agatha Christie novel comes to life on the stage in the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre‘s current production. Unlike most of its shows, this one is held in the smaller, more intimate Studio Theater, a great fit for the chilly drama. Ten strangers find themselves trapped on an English island with a killer in their midst. They soon realize not all is as it seems when they are all accused of committing various murders. The three-act play has one 15 minute intermission and then a short pause after the second act. The pace clips along briskly as the story unfolds. Charles Goad had quite the challenge as the director. He has to show murders, both onstage and off, without revealing the killer. It’s a game of sleight-of-hand and he manages it beautifully. The audience is pulled into the guessing game as the bodies piled up. I frequently he...

  From the moment Matt Anderson takes the stage, his seething and scheming Richard III demands your full attention. It's a role that would be easy to over act, but instead Anderson's portrayal is raw and visceral. He has frequently popped up in supporting roles over the years, but this play gives him a chance to stretch his wings and show what he can do. He is mesmerizing as the simpering villain. Under Glenn Dobbs’ direction, some of the simplest moments are the most powerful. There's a scene where the two ill-fated nephews grasp hands, and that simple gesture conveys so much emotion.   The set is simple, consisting of only a few chairs or benches. The audience surrounds the stage on three sides and the cast makes the most of the intimate space.   Christina Howard’s plays both Lady Anne and Lord Grey, but it’s her performance as the grieving widow that is particularly powerful. She and Allison Clark Reddick (playing Queen Elizabeth) are both beautiful studies o...

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Yet centuries later the themes of his plays prove timeless and relevant. Hamlet, a First Folio production currently being staged at Ben Davis, tells the familiar tale of a young man consumed by grief and revenge. The plot of Hamlet, like so many of Shakespeare's other works, could've been written today .  This production has been edited down to a brisk 2 hours. Extended scenes with the players and characters like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern end up on the cutting room floor, but the show flows beautifully. A few rearranged scenes and the audience is thrown into the action quickly and left hanging when the intermission comes. Glenn Dobbs direction keeps things moving smoothly.   The whole show feels more action packed than other more reflective stagings. The final swordfight, choreographed by Scott Russell, is one of the best I’ve seen. Each fighter has a sword and dagger and they duel with convincing s...

Titus Andronicus is the Reservoir Dogs of Shakespeare. It’s the most violent of the Bard’s plays and a perfect fit for October. Director Thomas Cardwell has set the story of two warring clans in a post-apocalyptic world and the show sucks the audience in from the opening scene. The Indie Artist Colony provides a stark world in which EclecticPond can build its gritty new society. Everything from the costumes to the set design is intentionally rough, suggesting haphazardness to its creation. The costumes, an assorted mix of layered leather, fur, scarves, and vests enforces the scavenged look of a society that’s been put together in a piecemeal fashion.   The show hosts a large cast on the small stage and as the bodies start to pile up, the revenge plots grow darker. The play includes one of the most infamous dinner scenes in all of western literature.  Tamora is played by Kelly Gualdoni, in a wildly different role than the last time audiences saw her perform for E...