Cardenio Online Hubbub Monday, June 9, 2008

What did you think about Cardenio? Keep the discussion going on A.R.T.’s Online Hubub.

“The decorations were great (not often nowadays), the colors and the costumes – pleasant to an eye.  Felt bad for Doris, though.  She actually wasn’t as bad as some family members could be at all…” -AG

“I took someone who had not been to the ART in years – one of many “It got too crazy” drop outs I’ve been trying to convince that you have never been stronger.  These past two years have been stellar!  He loved Cardenio.  Too bad he missed Julius Caesar, Oliver, Britannicus, Figaro – Wings of Desire you guys are so hot!!” -micaela d

“We loved the play.  Thanks!” -Kristin L.

“I thought the play was lots of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it!” -Barbara S.

“Some of the sketches and set-pieces were hysterical, but the dramatic glue sometimes failed, and some characters didn’t make sense (here I don’t wish to fault the acting, which really was excellent, or even to hurt authorial feelings, since it was an entertaining work with high ambitions that were maybe not uniformly reached). Luisa’s paean to Umbria just wasn’t moving. The Doris character was a problem. She was just repellent, without enough core truth or depth to make her at all sympathetic; when we are invited to identify with her as she becomes bored during the rehearsal (as who hasn’t gotten fidgety at SOME point during a Shakespeare performance) it just can’t happen because she has been so off-putting. And then everybody banishes her at the end for being not much more than a nudge.  Edmund’s dance routine was a hoot, Sally’s vibrator soliloquy nicely unexpected (although I was cringing about how to explain it to my 14-year old daughter, and am now cringing over why she didn’t ask), Rudi was a romp, Camilla’s facial acting saved the role. Point of curiosity: How much of Susan’s hyper-coloratura singing was pumped up at the audio board to ensure the mesmerizing effect (I don’t mean this to be snotty; I am sure her voice is beautiful un-enhanced)?” -Gentle Viewer

“We felt the play was too disjointed and had too many gratuitous elements that disrupted the flow of the story.  Some of this is, indeed, Shakespearean, but was not something we enjoyed.” -Robert E.

“I had a blast. I loved the mix of characters, the wackiness, the levels at which one could enjoy the words. It was light and fun and silly and thought-provoking.” -Ariane C.

“Cardenio was a fun and funny play. The Rudi character was hilarious, as was the twitchy Edmund. The actors were excellent in their roles.” -Linda W

“We loved the play and had a very good time. We’re the laugh out loud people center/ row  L.” -Styler Divine

“While the acting wasn’t bad, the play itself is so obsessively self-involved.  I go to the theater to see theater, not actors talking about acting.  I know this is a Shakespearian device, but in this case, put in the modern setting of a play acted within a play, I think it failed miserably and was really an exercise in thespian masturbation.” -Ashley

“This is the first time I came to see a play here.  And I absolutely fell in love.  I definitely got hooked on coming to watch plays here (hope the others are half as good as this one).” -HM

“Very clever, funny, enjoyable show.” -Michelem

 

 

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