By James Foritano Shakespeare must have felt himself to be living in an increasingly and perilously fast-paced society when he penned A Midsummer Night’s Dream — still one of his most popular comedies in 1595-96. Earlier in that rumbustious century, England’s Henry VIII decided that he couldn’t abide an Italian pope telling him what he could and couldn’t do in his own marriage bed. So, Henry nationalized not only divorce laws but religion and all its far-reaching properties in England — thank you very much. Actors’ Shakespeare Project is presenting Shakespeare’s masterpiece through early June in a production directed by Patrick Swanson. In this classic favorite of the season, Theseus, the duke of Athens, in Shakespeare’s parable of his own life and times, is also in a hurry to wed his intended, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Recent antagonists on the battlefield though … [Read more...] about Actors’ Shakespeare Project presents: A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Multicultural Arts Center
Boston theater
Boston Lyric Opera presents The Marriage of Figaro at John Hancock Hall
By James Foritano In Boston’s venerable John Hancock Hall, a few steps down Berkeley Street and just off Copley Square, our own Boston Lyric Opera roars into town with an enduring classic, a smoking hot bedroom comedy that offended one emperor, Joseph 2nd of the Hapsburg Empire, and King Louis XVI. Threats of censorship loomed, then dissipated. It was 1780, the height of the Age of Enlightenment, when the light of reason shone everywhere, especially bedrooms. So perhaps these two royal heavyweights second guessed themselves, deciding: Better bedrooms than halls of state! Besides, their own aristocracies were revolting, in both senses. Firstly, this was the way the aristocracy behaved offstage, all the time. And they wanted to see themselves as much as their underlings wanted to see what they were mostly missing. And who better to portray deliciously ‘bad’ behavior than … [Read more...] about Boston Lyric Opera presents The Marriage of Figaro at John Hancock Hall