[NEohioPAL] Review of CPT's "Kill Will"

[Bob Abelman]

CPT's 'Kill Will' offers sound and fury, but signifies nothing

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review appeared in the News-Herald on 10/22/10

 

Those who watch hockey for the penalties, get their literature through SparkNotes and think WWE's Smack Down is performance art will thoroughly enjoy Kill Will, on stage at Cleveland Public Theatre.  For everyone else, not so much.

 

Josh Brown and Kelly Elliott, a husband and wife team of fight-choreographers, have taken a very clever concept destined for open mike night at Hilarities and overextended it into an evening of Shakespeare's greatest hits.  Literally.

 

This one-act, one hour production features the best of Elizabethan characters at their worst-a collection of murder most foul plucked from scenes in Shakespeare's tragedies and historical dramas, and reenacted by Brown and Elliott for laughs.  Workshopped at Cleveland Public Theatre in 2009 and recently showcased in the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Kill Will is making its world premiere as a professional production at the CPT Store Front Studio.

 

This show is more reinvention than reenactment, with violent and gory bits from the Bard placed within the most unlikely of pop culture contexts.  Select death scenes are staged as if from a video game, a children's story and films of various genre, complete with cheap wigs, silly props, visual aids and assorted weaponry.  

 

Brown and Elliott pitch this production as if it is a backhanded tribute to Shakespeare-a piece of theatre that pays homage to his work while simultaneously making fun of it.  In truth, Kill Will simply strip mines these classic texts for their murderous moments, which serve as mere fodder for a bit of stage combat (that is disappointingly stagey and repetitive) and some stand-up comedy (that is disappointingly stagey and repetitive).  

 

In contrast, the play The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)-to be performed by the Great Lakes Theatre Festival in March-is designed to be a theatrical celebration for those who love Shakespeare.  It, too, reduces Shakespeare's works into nuggets, cramming his entire canon of plays into one production for comedic effect.  

 

However, it is endearingly irreverent, while Kill Will is not.

 

It is appreciative of and does justice to the original work, while Kill Will does not.

 

It is absurdly zany and genuinely smart, while Kill Will is not.

 

Kill Will is silly, shallow and goes nowhere, which renders its humor unsustainable throughout the course of an evening.  Brown and Elliott incorporate elements of audience participation to keep things lively, but this just adds to the production's open mike night vibe, which did not particularly resonate with its preview-night audience last Thursday.  

 

A fellow recently set a world record for reciting Shakespeare's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet while working out with a Shake Weight. The lesson to be learned from this is that three minutes and 28 seconds is more than enough time to achieve your goal if your goal is small and inconsequential.

                                  

The rest is sound and fury, signifying nothing.



Kill Will continues through October 30 at Cleveland Public Theatre on Cleveland's near-west side.  For tickets, which range from $10 to $15, call 216-631-2727 or visit www.cptonline.org.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20101022/d06d7ebd/attachment-0003.htm>