If you’ve ever had the desire to see people in tights fervently raising the battle cry of “Bullshit! Bullshit!” in front of a sold-out Victoria audience, then I suggest you go see The Belfry Theatre’s production of Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet).
Canadian playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald brings Shakespeare’s most famous characters into collision with the modern world in this witty adventure of comedy and romance. Now, I don’t want to ruin any surprises, but let’s just say if you like a good unexpected thong dance, this is the Shakespeare show for you.
MacDonald’s clever script, packed with literary allusion and modern wit, was splendidly delivered by five cast members at the Belfry. The actors, while walking the line between poking fun and respecting the classics, allow the viewer to suspend their disbelief without too much cognitive dissonance, despite sword fighting and making out in the library.
So before you think your profs at Camosun are a little strange, consider quirky Professor Constance Ledbelly and her journey of self-discovery as she is thrown into the Shakespeare worlds of Othello and Romeo and Juliet, trying to prove that these masterpieces were intended to be comedies, not tragedies. Her presence in their worlds changes the course of fate in the lives of each character, revealing secrets about unrequited love, violence, and Romeo and Juliet’s marital problems that you never wanted to know. (And you thought you had relationship issues!)
Were the Bard alive today, I think he would commend the cast of this satire for their impeccable enunciation of his famous blank verse as well as MacDonald’s own rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter. From my tight-wearing days performing in Shakespeare plays, I know the challenge of believable and poignant delivery worthy of words centuries old, and I got shivers when Mercutio bellows his last words: “A plague on both your houses!”
The cast did exceptionally well in their stage blocking, in both combat and physicality. The effects and construction of the set provided seamless transitions to scenes and emotions of life experiences common to us all (except murder, I hope).
In the true spirit of the Bard, where epic drama meets cross-gender humour, the play steeply accelerates in energy throughout each act. If you want more sex jokes than you can shake a stick at, come to the second half. If you’re anything like me, the sexual tension and shocking turns of events will have you laughing faster than you can say “I always knew Romeo was gay!”
Between the thespians and lesbians, murder and girders, from Queens University to Cyprus, Verona, and back, this play is worth seeing if you have a love for Shakespeare, or if you don’t and would enjoy watching his work be messed with.
This play runs at the Belfry until October 20th; should the fates allow you to see it, I pray thee, “gird thou trembling loins!” It’s a good one.