An Especially Hard Bard

Staging Shakespeare today - and wrapping our 21st-century dialects around all of those arcane phrases - is difficult enough. But staging a full Shakespeare play with six actors performing 18 parts? That could be suicide. Or it could be totally amazing. The Lake Worth-based nonprofit company Take Heed will attempt...

By John Thomason

May 17, 2012

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Staging Shakespeare today - and wrapping our 21st-century dialects around all of those arcane phrases - is difficult enough. But staging a full Shakespeare play with six actors performing 18 parts? That could be suicide. Or it could be totally amazing. The Lake Worth-based nonprofit company Take Heed will attempt this challenge beginning Friday and running through May 27 at the Old School Square Pavilion with a free production of Much Ado About Nothing. "We've got some actors playing upwards of four different parts in the play, which makes it a lot more energetic and fun," says Artistic Director David Hyland, who plays a pair of meaty roles in the production. "There are times where you walk off as one character and two lines later come back as another character. Once we've done a show like this, it'll almost be a letdown to go to one role in a show." Expect a postgender Much Ado; men play women and vice versa. Bring picnic blankets, chairs, and nosh. Old School Square is at 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated. Call 561-243-7922, or visit oldschool.org.
Fri., May 18, 8 p.m.; Sat., May 19, 8 p.m.; Sun., May 20, 8 p.m.; Fri., May 25, 8 p.m.; Sat., May 26, 8 p.m.; Sun., May 27, 8 p.m., 2012

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