Shakespeare

Fringe review: Shakespeare’s Ear

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By John Lyle Belden

Early Music in Motion presents “Shakespeare’s Ear” by William Ayot, featuring an ensemble playing Renaissance period instruments and The Fourth Wall’s C. Neil Parsons as “Will,” on the main stage at Theatre on the Square.

Our young Bard tells of his life as we are presented with some of the music that inspired and entertained him. He explains how someone so low-born as he could gain such sophistication that he could write plays about history and the lives of kings. He relates his loves, losses and triumphs, and joins the musicians for an occasional dance.

Parsons is engaging as young Shakespeare, with storytelling style that flows as easily as his virtuoso music on other stages. And the show gives us an excellent insight into the man and his era.

The musicians are excellent as well, providing both atmosphere and a visual lesson of what the “orchestra” was like in years past.

Fringe review: Breakneck Hamlet

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By Wendy Carson

Tim Mooney has become synonymous with the Shakespearean soliloquy and for good reason. He has memorized so many of them and can spout them off the top of his head so quickly it can make your head spin.

In “Breakneck Hamlet,” playing at the Musician’s Union Hall, he deftly breezes through the bog than can be four-plus hours of the Bard’s best, giving us a rollicking version of the classic tragedy of “Hamlet” in just under an hour.

While he does gloss over a lot of the often tedious plot, all of the great speeches therein are saved and presented with such passion and skill that you will wonder why this is not the standard presentation of the show. In fact, if all of Shakespeare’s works were taught like this in schools, I feel that students would find it much more identifiable and embrace the works delightedly.

Whether you enjoy the play or not, you must do your best to see this craftsman’s work and behold his genius. It will have you reevaluating your feelings towards this great catalog of words and hoping that Mooney will return to enthrall us with more works like this.

Opening in the wide open spaces of “Oklahoma,” or Noblesville

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Nick Gehring (Curly) and Emma Rund (Aunt Eller) in the Young Adults production of "Oklahoma!" at the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre in Carmel. -- Civic Theatre photo
Nick Gehring (Curly) and Emma Rund (Aunt Eller) in the Young Adults production of “Oklahoma!” at the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre in Carmel. — Civic Theatre photo

There are two stage openings of note this weekend.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!” is on the boards at the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre in The Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Carmel. This is the annual summer production performed mainly by late teen and early 20s actors. Given the youth theatre and high school thespian scene, these “kids” might already have some seasoning, but career- or volunteer-vocation-wise, they are just getting started.

Summer brings out local devotees of the immortal Bard (both on stage and in audience) for Shakespeare in the Park. Thursday through Saturday this weekend and next, a production of the comedy “Twelfth Night” will be presented at Seminary Park, located between 10th and 11th streets, and Division and Hannibal streets in Noblesville. Festivities start at 7:30 p.m. and admission is free.

For something a little different this weekend (for grown-ups only) the Angel Burlesque “Nerdgasm” returns to Theatre on the Square on Mass Ave. in downtown Indy, Friday and Saturday, starting at 10 p.m. Being geeky has never been sexier.

— Go have some fun!