A Play by Any Other Name Is Still Shakespeare

Harold Bloom is perhaps the world’s preeminent scholar on all things Shakespeare. A purist, Bloom considers Shakespeare to be the epicenter of Western literature, has been known to refer to the bard as God himself, and believes that any playwright, director, or theater company that presumes to change, update, modernize,...

By Rebecca McBane

April 21, 2011

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Harold Bloom is perhaps the world’s preeminent scholar on all things Shakespeare. A purist, Bloom considers Shakespeare to be the epicenter of Western literature, has been known to refer to the bard as God himself, and believes that any playwright, director, or theater company that presumes to change, update, modernize, or reimagine Shakespeare should be shot. So he probably should not attend Thinking Cap Theatre’s latest production, Que(e)rying Shakespeare, playing at the Wine Cellar at 1 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Wednesday. The two-act performance includes scenes from Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing. Shakespeare’s Othello is given a feminine twist in Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief, and the most tragic love story ever told becomes Juliet the Cougar. Fundamentalist bardolatry aside, old Will would probably have heartily approved of such reinvention. After all, Shakespeare revolutionized theater, populated his stage with drag queens, and created many of the figures of speech still used today. Tickets cost $12.05 in advance or $15 at the door at the Wine Cellar (199 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Oakland Park). Visit thinkingcaptheatre.com, or call 813-220-1546.
Sat., April 23, 1 p.m.; Wed., April 27, 7 p.m., 2011

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Rebecca McBane is the arts and culture/food editor for New Times Broward-Palm Beach. She began her journalism career at the Sun Sentinel's community newspaper offshoot, Forum Publishing Group, where she worked as the editorial assistant and wrote monthly features as well as the weekly library and literature column, "Shelf Life." After a brief stint bumming around London's East End (for no conceivable reason, according to her poor mother), she returned to real life and South Florida to start at New Times as the editorial assistant in 2009. A native Floridian, Rebecca avoids the sun and beach at all costs and can most often be found in a well-air-conditioned space with the glow of a laptop on her face.

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