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Shakespeare's Case a victory
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The Nashville Shakespeare Festival's original play was presented to large audiences at the Belmont Troutt Theater on Belmont Blvd. this weekend. The beautiful, modern proscenium theater was an excellent venue for the minimalist staging of this production, providing a thematic ally in the play's effort to prove the relevance of Shakespeare's work to the modern world.
The play, featuring an appearance by the bard, aptly performed by Brian Webb Russell (The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Hamlet & MacBeth), was a raucous stew of audience participation, sketch comedy and wisdom as vital and enduring as the subject matter itself.
It is obvious that the play has been written and staged to be an excellent traveling show, and the Festival's intent of providing it as a teaching tool to nearby venues, including schools, is clear. As an educational experience, the show is sure to be engaging and enlightening to those students confused and frustrated with Shakespeare's work. Great care was taken by playwrights Nan Gurley (Prosecutor), Denice Hicks (Judge) and Claire Syler (director) to make the play something with which the modern audience can identify.
The fusion of Shakepearean drama and comedy with a Law & Order style theme allows the actors, including a befuddled English teacher, played by Nashvile native Jon Royal (The Merry Wives of Windsor, MacBeth, As You Like It, All's Well That Ends Well & Arabian Nights) to explain and then demystify the differences in language that confound modern students while fully showcasing the similarities in topic and tone between the Bard's epic works and modern formats.
The other characters are just as accessible to students and adults alike. The Prosecuting Attorney draws on all the sarcasm and bile that one expects out of such a character, and Nan Gurley (The Seagull, Cyrano, A Streetcar Named Desire, Richard III & The Merry Wives of Windsor) uses all of her award-winning talent to make the point. Denice Hicks's Judge is a professional and stoic archetype, certain at first that the prosecution's argument is valid and unshakeable.
Then there's Shakespeare, an energetic and wonder-filled creator, brought to life with great love by Brian Webb Russell and rich with the actor's 28 years of theatre experience. The Bard draws on his work to provide a courtroom defense in a way that transforms the other characters both literally and figuratively, shedding light on the importance and relevance of his work. Even more importantly, he proves the raw entertainment value of his plays and poetry to both the courtroom and the audience.
Whether you are an educator, a student or a lover of the English language and tradition, Shakespeare's Case is an entertaining romp through the Bard's time and on into our own.
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