Bad Shakespeare

Last night Chris Plummer and I saw some. It was Cymbeline at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and it was not good. In fact, it was a good deal like the moneyed Shakespeare productions they make fun of in the Canadian TV show "Slings and Arrows." There was no life in it, there was mostly pretty words and bad, cartoonish characterizations (seriously only an idiot Imogen would've fallen for that Iacomo), and the costume design concept seemed to be color vomited all over the stage. There was some very Caisley-esque flag waving and some cool special effects (which were cool even if really odd in the context of the world of the play, but they were in fact better then watching the story).

Posthumus was good. I actually would've liked to have seen him in a production where the other actors were as good and generous and unencumbered with excessive frivolity, although I wonder how the director allowed him to be so plain--seeing as everyone else seemed to be encouraged to be ridiculous.

Thank God we didn't pay for our tickets (which were in excellent seats--the one excellent thing I can say for the production, although the lighting design was quite good too). I am glad I thanked Holly (my friend who gave me them) before I saw it, so it could sound sincere.

Oh, and for fans of "Gray's Anatomy" the actor who played Posthumus was the pregnant man that Christina and Meredith stole from the psych ward at the beginning of season two (at least, I think that happened in early season two).

It was bad. Chris and I almost inappropriately giggled several times and had to clutch each other at other moments too. In the show's defense, it was their first preview, so it is likely that we saw the show at its worse, but even if it doubly improves by opening, it will still be a bad production.