Reviews for Tales from Shakespeare

The average rating for Tales from Shakespeare based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2021-02-16 00:00:00 Martyn Graham There once was a fine group of people in a fine country house with a fine glass pavilion -- a crystal palace of sorts -- and this fine group of people was made up of fine folks from the upper class: lords who were diplomats to Genghis Khan (not the murderous thug but a region); fine folks from the middle class: a merchant, his wife and their children (albehim a merchant of underwear, making them sort of fruit of the loon-type folk); and these fine folk had gathered together to debate some fine issues and ideas, and to discuss some fine ideas and issues, and to use these fine ideas and issues to flirt and to fight. But wait! that's not all because a Goggled Man (a pilot of the flimsiest sort of biplane) and his passenger, a Polish, acrobatic dominatrix, crash in the garden outside that fine sort of crystal palace just before a lower middle class (white collared clerk, don't you know) anarchist comes in guns at the ready to fight for the honour of his dead mother (who doesn't need his anarchism or her honour). And along with this fine group of people were those fine issues and ideas that they would discuss and debate, and fight and flirt over: everything from that "vulgar" socialism to the independence of women, from anarchy to the dependence of moneyed boys, from class struggle to the ridiculousness of the wedding state -- and all would be well versed and poorly versed and opinionated and clever and foolish and playful and funny and somehow lovable. And all would be the people of Bernard Shaw's glorious imagination. And all would make my son's and my COVID isolation that much less painful. Bravo, Bernard!

Review # 2 was written on 2018-01-01 00:00:00 Gaby Nunamaker Read this before seeing The Orange Tree Theatre's production. If I had read it afterward, it might have got a fourth star! The cast and direction were superb and really brought Shaw's lopsided and over-wordy contraption to life. Good things here: he plays quite radically with gender roles and assumptions; the play's major theme is feminist (there's a brilliant and fiery last speech by Lina the Polish aviator, Mrs Pankhurst could hardly have done better) - and socialism vegetarianism and teetotalism get a look in too (paring back on the ideas and debate might have helped the drama). But in a good performance, this was charming and funny, and felt relevant.