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"The Basketball Game" is a graphic novel adaptation of the award-winning National Film Board of Canada animated short of the same name – intended for audiences aged 12 years and up. It's a poignant tale of the power of community as a means to rise above hatred and bigotry. In the end, as is recognized by the kids playing the basketball game, we're all in this together.

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Tag: Othello

From Mideast to the South

From Mideast to the South

Pericles is one of the best Bard on the Beach productions this season. (photo by David Blue)

If the thought of being transported to the mystique and exotic locales of the ancient Middle East appeals to you, then you must see Pericles, which is currently playing on the Howard Family Stage at Bard on the Beach, alternating with Othello.

Director Lois Anderson takes this rarely produced play – only once before in Bard on the Beach’s 27-year history has it been performed, and scholars believe Shakespeare only wrote the second half of it – and creatively turns it into something magical, with puppets, terra cotta figurines, white-faced ghostly creatures and billowy sheets that morph from crashing waves to animals.

As you enter the tent, your breath is taken away by Jewish community member Amir Ofek’s captivating set design: soft desert hues, Corinthian columns, red and gold brocade-tasseled tapestries, woven baskets and blown glass. John Webber’s warm lighting pervades the room. The mood is reinforced by Malcolm Dow’s exquisite sound design; a melodic fusion of traditional Middle Eastern fare. Before it even begins, the play is a visual and aural treat.

Pericles is the tale of the nautical odyssey of a wandering prince, the eponymous hero Pericles of Tyre (Kamyar Pazandeh), as told through flashbacks by narrator and healer Cerimon (David Warburton) in the temple of the goddess Diana to a young woman he has saved from a brothel. As he tells her, it all began with a trip to Antioch 15 years earlier, when our hero hoped to marry the princess of that city but had to flee for his life when he learned the secret of her incestuous relationship with her father.

Pericles’ escape takes him to many ports, culminating with a shipwreck at Pentapolis. There, he wins the hand of the princess Thaisa (Sereana Malani) in a jousting competition and sets sail with his new wife, now pregnant, to reclaim his throne in Tyre. Daughter Marina (Luisa Jojic) is born on the ship and Thaisa dies in childbirth. Pericles throws his wife’s body into the sea and heads to the nearest port, Tharsus, where he leaves Marina in the care of his longtime friend, Governor Cleon (Luc Roderique), and his wife, Dionyza (Jeff Gladstone in an interesting gender-role reversal).

Fast-forward 14 years. Marina has grown into a beautiful young woman. Dionyza, jealous for her own daughter’s betrothal chances, arranges for a servant, Leonine (Kayvon Kelly), to murder Marina. However, pirates kidnap Marina before the dastardly deed can be done. She is sold to a brothel, but keeps her virtue with eloquent talk, and captures the heart of Governor Lysimachus (also played by Kelly).

In the meantime, Pericles returns to Tharsus to reunite with his daughter but is told that she is dead. I stop here so as not to spoil a very surreal ending – you will have to see it to believe it.

All of the cast, many of whom play multiple roles, are outstanding but special mention must be made of Pazandeh, who runs the gamut of emotions from victorious suitor to grieving husband and father; Jojic, who gives the right touch of innocence to Marina; Warburton, with his wizardly tricks; Gladstone as a very creepy Dionyza; and Kayla Deorksen as Bawd, the flamboyant brothel owner.

Costumer Carmen Alatorre’s costumes are spot on with flowing robes of bright, textured fabrics: earth tones to represent the land and shades of blue, the sea; the main characters are contrasted by off-white ghostly spectres.

Pericles was one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays in its time and Anderson’s rendering makes it easy to understand why. The intimate setting of the Howard Family Stage is perfect for this showcase of hope, perseverance, redemption and ultimate reconciliation. I took my 11-year-old niece to opening night and she loved it. Of the four Bard productions, this one topped the list for me and it is highly recommended.

photo in Jewish Independent - Luc Roderique and Kayla Deorksen in Othello
Luc Roderique and Kayla Deorksen in Othello. (photo by David Blue)

Playing in repertory with Pericles on the Howard Family Stage, and featuring most of the same actors, is Othello, set in 1864 Charleston during the American Civil War.

What does it take to drive an intelligent, successful, respected man into a jealous husband capable of a murderous rage? A manipulative villain named Iago – and Othello really is the story of this vile person, who brings tragedy to all unfortunate enough to cross his path.

Directed by Bob Frazer – who played Iago in Bard’s last mounting of this work – this psychosexual drama gives a new perspective to the racism inherent in the testosterone-infused military world in which black Othello (Roderique) lives.

The story revolves around Othello’s rise to power in the union army and Iago’s (Kelly) planned revenge as he is passed over by General Othello for a senior position that is given to Cassio (Gladstone). To get even, Iago plants the seeds of doubt in Othello’s mind as to the fidelity of his new wife, Desdemona (a mixed racial union), accusing her of an intimate tryst with Cassio.

Slowly, Othello is convinced – a handkerchief allegedly found in his good lady’s room the final proof – that Desdemona has been untrue and, in a moment of murderous passion, strangles her in her canopied bed. Emilia (Jojic), Iago’s wife but also Desdemona’s maid and confidante, walks into this deathly scene, tells Othello the truth of the handkerchief and outs her husband for his role in the tragedy. Othello is overcome with grief and remorse and takes his own life.

Iago is a sadistic sociopath who manipulates those around him with his ersatz sycophantic charm. Kelly is sublime in this role – you love to hate him. Tall and slender, Roderique portrays a sympathetic Othello with a quiet sense of dignity and authority that disintegrates as we watch his metamorphosis into uncontrollable and lethal rage. Deorksen is a sweet-tempered but strong-willed Desdemona. Jojic gives a heart-breaking performance as a passionate and loyal servant torn between her duty to her husband and that to her employer. Lesser roles are ably played by Malani (Bianca), Andrew Cownden (Roderigo), Ian Butcher (Gratiano) and Shaker Paleja (Montano).

Costumer Marla Gottler provides crisp navy uniforms for the Union soldiers and gorgeous Scarlett O’Hara-type frocks for the ladies. Music is pure southern comfort with banjos strumming “Dixie.” Unfortunately, the set design is a problem. The same Ofek-designed Pericles set is used, and that Middle Eastern look with its columns and arches seems out of place in a moonlight and magnolias milieu. However, the minimalist use of props – a couple of boxes here, a table there – allows the audience to focus on the powerful words that make Othello one of Shakespeare’s most eloquent works.

This production is good, but it would have been so much better had it made more use of its Civil War setting, other than just to give a perfunctory nod to the fashion and music of the time.

Othello runs to Sept. 20 and Pericles to Sept. 21. For tickets and more information on these shows – and Romeo and Juliet and The Merry Wives of Windsor – visit bardonthebeach.org.

Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.

Format ImagePosted on August 26, 2016August 25, 2016Author Tova KornfeldCategories Performing ArtsTags Amir Ofek, Bard on the Beach, Civil War, Othello, Pericles, Shakespeare
Goodnight boredom

Goodnight boredom

Left to right: Kazz Leskard (Iago), Claire Rice (Desdemona) and Courtney Shields (Constance) in Awkward Productions’ Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet. (photo by Derek Fu)

Have you ever wished you could change the course of a play, making the plot … well … just a little bit different?

What would have happened if someone had told Othello that Iago was tricking him? What if Romeo and Juliet hadn’t died? Would the plays have been successful as comedies and not tragedies?

These are the questions taken on in Awkward Productions’ Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet, part of the first annual Fakespeare Festival.

Written by the award-winning Ann-Marie MacDonald, Goodnight Desdemona is an outlandish and hilarious romp that follows associate professor Constance Ledbelly (Courtney Shields), who is trying to prove a peculiar notion.

Doing her PhD in Shakespearean literature, her thesis revolves around a made-up tome written in code, called the Gustav Manuscript. She believes the work proves that Othello and Romeo and Juliet were originally written by an author who had included a wise fool and that the plays were supposed to be comedies. Shakespeare, she posits, got rid of the fool, turning them into tragedies. If she can only decipher the code, she can find out the identity of the fool and that will lead her to the original playwright.

The theory is laughed at by her colleagues, including a professor for whom she works (and with whom she is in love), who takes advantage of her desire to please him by having her write all his papers. Her work garners him a post at Oxford, which she believes she deserved, and, to top it off, he is running off with another woman, leaving her alone and out of a job.

Disgusted with herself, feeling hurt and betrayed, she begins to trash her office and finds herself transported into the world of Shakespeare, first landing in Othello, when Iago is about to trick Othello into thinking Desdemona has been unfaithful, and next in Romeo and Juliet, as Tybalt is about to kill Mercutio.

Like Alice in Wonderland, Constance is at first bewildered by her surroundings, but, as she is an expert in Shakespeare, she easily comes up with a backstory and picks up the language of the time. She impresses everyone with her knowledge and is accepted as a contemporary, allowing her to proceed on her quest to find the fool that Shakespeare had eliminated and, from there, find the real author.

But, her presence changes the course of events, and the two tragedies become comedies. This is where the play really takes off.

While in Venice, she reveals Iago’s trickery and befriends Desdemona, who, in turn, helps Constance find her own confidence, but also encourages her to revel in killing, which turns Constance’s stomach (being a vegetarian) and causes her to question her usefulness.

“Next to Desdemona, I’m roadkill,” a dejected Constance laments.

In Verona, the turn of events leads to a squabbling marriage between Romeo and Juliet, both of whom fall in love with Constance, leading Romeo to dress in drag, thinking Constance is a lesbian. The thought excites Juliet, who revels in the idea of a girl-on-girl tryst.

The hilarity of these ludicrous set-ups is enhanced by the dazzling wordplay that infuses MacDonald’s script. A “creep” becomes a “base annoysome knave,” for example. Calling herself an academic from Queens, Desdemona believes that Constance is referring to the queen of the Amazons and treats her as one. When Constance appears in Verona, she’s wearing pants and is mistaken for a boy, with uproarious results.

In the end, Constance finds her fool in an unexpected place (alas), and returns home with the confidence to finish her paper, academic derision be damned.

Though the dialogue is lightning-fast and the one-liners are nonstop, Shields carries the weight of the wordy script brilliantly. Jewish community member Zach Wolfman as Mercutio (as well as numerous other characters) calls upon his Shakespeare training to add his own comedic nuance to the production.

It’s not surprising that MacDonald has won several awards for this literary tour de force, including a Governor General’s Award and Canadian Authors Association Award. It is definitely one not to miss.

The Fakespeare Festival features Goodnight Desdemona, as well as Titus Andronicus: The Light and Delightful Musical Comedy of Titus Andronicus. Both plays run at York Theatre, 639 Commercial Dr., until Aug. 28. Tickets are available from tickets.thecultch.com or 604-251-1363.

 

Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer and media trainer in Vancouver. Her consulting work can be seen at phase2coaching.com.

Format ImagePosted on August 19, 2016August 18, 2016Author Baila LazarusCategories Performing ArtsTags Awkward Stage, Desdemona, Fakespeare, Othello, Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare
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