Seattle Shakespeare Company

Past

Bring Down the House, Part 1: Throne of Treachery

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A country on the cusp of a new era. A polarized political system, with scheming and selfishness pushing things to the point of no return. Seattle Shakespeare Company’s Bring Down the House, Part 1: Throne of Treachery mixes political intrigue and personal ambition in a gripping adaption of Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy.
Henry VI, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 may have established Shakespeare’s reputation with their original audiences, but these plays are relatively unpopular today…
Bring Down the House, Rosa Joshi and Kate Wisniewski’s adaption of Henry VI, highlights the strengths of the trilogy, and minimizes its weaknesses…

Past

Medea: Consequences Freefall

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When I went to see Medea, brilliantly staged by the Seattle Shakespeare Company at the Center Theatre, I anticipated spending an hour or two with a raging madwoman. But director Kelly Kitchens’s production portrays Medea as a normal part of the social fabric. In this 2400 year old Greek tragedy by Euripides, we get a new perspective on womanhood and speaking up.

Past

A Dazzling Winter’s Tale

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Seattle Shakespeare has chosen The Winter’s Tale to launch their 26th season. Believed to be the second to last script the Bard ever penned, the unusual play is filled with intriguing points and counterpoints as a devastating tragedy is ultimately averted in the later acts. The work has been described as a tragicomedy and presents many challenges for any acting troupe. Fortunately, the company has gathered some of Seattle’s most talented actors and technicians to present an earnest and remarkably thoughtful show.

Past

Mrs Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw

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Conventionally Unconventional

When the Victorian version of “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” is ignored between a mother and daughter, and the wealth, which paid for the daughter’s expensive education, comes from prostitution and pimping, all hell break’s loose in George Bernard Shaw’s play Mrs. Warren’s Profession. Directed by Victor Pappas, Seattle Shakespeare Company opened this delightful play at Center House in Seattle Center last weekend

Past

Seattle Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors

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The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s earliest and silliest plays. Slapstick and mistaken identities rule the day, as the Bard seems to just be starting to find his voice. There are flashes of his startling imagery entwined within the convoluted plot line and tortured puns. Seattle Shakespeare goes all out for the laughs here, filling their new venue at Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Leo K. Theatre with a robust energy.

Past

New Staging of Othello Roars into Seattle

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The Seattle Shakespeare Company has moved into the Cornish Playhouse (nee The Intiman) to wrap up their 24th season with a stirring Othello. The big doings of the play work well in this larger venue. Energy sizzles here from the opening curtain and director John Langs is able to keep this most tightly knit of all Shakespeare’s tragedies building and building toward its devastating climax.

Past

Measure for Measure

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Jane Austen meets Shakespeare: Morality Tale told through comedy .

Desdemona Chiang, has directed perhaps the best show Seattle Shakespeare Company has ever produced: Measure for Measure, which opened on Friday January 10th at the Center Theater at Seattle Center. Defined as a comedy because it has an almost fairy tale-like happy ending, it is also a serious morality tale, dealing with many Christian and universal themes such as mercy, atonement, chastity, the consequences of lust or what in previous generations was called “sin”, the irony of hypocrisy and the perniciousness of rigidly enforced justice.

Past

Twelfth Night or What You will by Seattle Shakespeare Company

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Elizabethan Rom Com

Seattle Shakespeare Company opened William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Twelfth Night, directed by Jon Kretzu at Seattle Center, lasts Thursday. The twelfth night in Shakespeare’s time was the Feast of Epiphany, January 6th, which was the twelfth day after Christmas. In those days, Advent was a time of fasting and reflection, much like pre-Vatican II Lent, so the “good times rolled” between Christmas and Epiphany. On Epiphany, (sometimes called the Festival of Fools) there was a lot of mischief, with servants dressing as masters and masters as servants, and a general carnival atmosphere.

Past

Waiting for Godot? Don’t Wait go see it Now!

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The Seattle Shakespeare Company has come indoors to the Falls Theatre at ACT and produced a very fine Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett as their part of the Seattle Beckett Festival. Director George Mount has struck the humor mother lode Beckett buried in the play. Had this production been the world premiere this play would never have received a reputation for being “tedious.” It helps that all of the actors know their lines well and have terrific comic timing.

Beckett doesn’t write according to the usual rules.

Past

Richard II-Seattle Shakespeare Company Stage a Stunner!

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Richard III and his monstrous machinations usually over shadow Richard II, Shakespeare’s only play written entirely in verse (even the gardener speaks in rhythm and rhyme.) A pendulum may be swinging, for the Royal Shakespeare Company recently staged a very strong version of Richard II that it sent out to movie houses around the world and now Seattle’s Shakespeare Company has put together a stellar production that does everything right.

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