The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company has done it again. What a hoot! We laughed ourselves silly – not once, not twice, but a bunch of times!
All 37 of Shakespeare’s plays mentioned and quoted – and made fun of. With Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet performed in full – more or less. Including a wild-eyed and very busy puppet, and Matt Johnson at his sexiest in most of the female roles – who knew?
And the audience got deeply, deeply involved. One woman drafted to scream ala Ophelia. Another to play her inner panic-stricken self – running up and down in front of the stage flapping her arms, while different sections of the audience played her id, ego, superego at pretty much the top of our lungs, while waving our arms. Truly an insane tear-inducing performance.
The timing, the eye-rolling – this is not your grandmother’s Shakespeare Company. These folk have got it down. To perfection.