[NEohioPAL]DELETE NOW: J.Claude Reviews R & G Are Dead at KSP

Sat Mar 20 14:15:00 PST 2004

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<DIV class=RTE>Warning:  I once saw Lura Bush naked, and I approved this message.  </DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>Mike and Ike, those irascible rabble rousers from south of the "legitimate" theatrical border (Hudson) are too intimately involved in the current production of <EM>Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead</EM> at Kent Stage Players to review the show objectively.  After a transfer of an obscenely large cash payment to an offshore account which may or may not involved Cubans on a grassy knoll, I agreed to stand in their stead. </DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>Ok. Here goes.  </DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>This show is awful.  Simply horrible.  Couldn't have been worse.  The cast were ciphers.  The plot was non-existent, totally incoherent.  The story has been edited terribly from the original script, thus the director's meaning and purpose seems to be nothing other than to mess with the minds of the audience, to make them feel stupid, small and weak, all the while in awe of the protagonists' unwarranted execution.  The audience walked out afterwards looking like recent emotional abuse victims; thier faces downturned in a mix of shocked shame, fear confusion and humiliation. Only a sick pervert with deep emotional scars and too much time on his hands would abuse his audiences with such a flagrant misuse of this reknowned artistic medium.   </DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>Oh, wait, that was my review of <EM>Passion of the Christ</EM>.  Ooops.  Sorry.  </DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>R & G are Dead at Kent Stage Players is a delightfully energetic rendering of Tom Stoppard's heady undergrad cult-theatre classic.  Much of Stoppard's self-congratulatory rambling has been condensed and tightened into a terse exploration of mortality, reality, and theatricality.  Especially effective are Player/Director Jeff Holland, whose playing of the chief tragedian is just the right mix of Richard O'Brian and Kurt Russell to add interesting but not-distracting depth to the story.  Also making waves are Joe Fischer as a chimp-wielding Hamlet, Greg Bealer and Ben Chronister as the title entities.  The chemistry between the three fills the chatoic wordplay with genuine life.  The tragedians, usually so much flotsam in other productions, here are fully realized characters complete with feet and arms.  One tragedian, who I shall not name, deserves special applause for re-creating the tents of Fortinbras war-camp in a way that is both imaginative and yet leaves nothing to the imagination.  </DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>All in all, Kent Stage Players (the little community theatre that could) have pulled off a hit worthy of viewing, particularly for Stoppard newbies, theatre students of all stripes, and even former members of the New World Performance Lab (if they aren't busy with other projects haha yeah right).  </DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>If you are now wondering what the heck I'm talking about, you ain't wondered at nothin' yet.  Go see this delightful re-arrangement of all the words in the Oxford English Dictionary, and support Kent Stage Players....North East Ohio's "Theatre for the Rest of Us"!</DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>Respectfully submitted, </DIV>
<DIV class=RTE>J. Claude Crumbumple</DIV>
<DIV class=RTE>President Emeritus, Kevorkian Cultural Center of Portage County.</DIV>
<DIV class=RTE>Current President, Honorary Of Over-rated Fine Arts Hucksters (HOOFAH)  </DIV>
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