So it's finally here! The Taffety Punk Theatre Company's all-female retort to the Shakespeare Theatre Company's all male Romeo and Juliet!Went to the last preview last night and all I can say is wow. Director Lise Bruneau seems to have tapped into a bit of Leo Gorcey and the Bowery Boys in the play's bumptious opening sequences. But I don't want to spoil any more of it... let's just say your going to see scads of great performances, a really inventive set that the actors really use, and all the feminine energy put to good use in a very male play. Sure, the Romeo and Juliet scenes have a different charge when Romeo and Juliet are both women -- but the Romeo/Mercutio/Benvolio scenes are really transformed -- as is the brutal scene where Capulet essentially disowns Juliet.
Want to read more? Yesterday's Express had a great interview with fight choreographer Lorraine Ressegger. And Peter Marks' review of the STC's all-male version had a nifty shout-out to the T-Punkers:
Although you'd love to see every aspect of "Romeo and Juliet" so vividly illuminated, Muse's gender-restricted gambit is an estimable reminder of how many routes can be traveled with Shakespeare -- and how many more this company needs to explore. In a wicked-cool bit of counterprogramming, the tiny Washington troupe Taffety Punk is offering this month an answer to Muse's production: an all-female "Romeo and Juliet." It's just this kind of clever blowback that rounds out a real theater town.Ticket information here!
1 comment:
First of all, thank you for your great enthusiasm for our show. We're having a ball and I am so glad you could play with us. Secondly, Balkans via Bohemia? I've spent the last four summers in the Balkans and love love love the place and especially love connecting with people who love it too! Are you from the Balkans, have you been there, is your family from there? Just curious!
:-)
~Juliet
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