Seamus Miller and Matthew Alan Ward in FEAR at Longacre Lea. Photo courtesy of Longacre Lea.
Running at The Callan Theatre on Catholic University’s campus is the latest from Longacre Lea, a delightfully heady piece for Shakespeare lovers. This world premiere production, written and directed by Kathleen Akerley, will definitely entertain fans of the Bard. Those not so familiar with his work may want to skip it.
It is a guaranteed intellectual, funny, and thought-provoking piece of art.
The play follows a young theatre company, 38th pi, as they strive to solve the problem with Shakespeare. “Why is it more fun to talk about Shakespeare than to watch Shakespeare?” The artistic director Timothy, played by Séamus Miller, receives a large donation from a software developer and longtime theatre fan named Penelope, played by Amal Saade. The company members and a well-known Shakespearean actor all work together to explore Shakespeare in different ways. What results is several fascinating production concepts and in depth conversations about difficult issues found in Shakespeare’s work, particularly Macbeth and Hamlet.
Act 1 gives us the set up for their project and the rehearsal process. Act 2 shows us pieces of the final projects and some closing discussions. It is a very long piece anyway, and the first act moves fairly slow. It could potentially be tightened up a bit but it does lay out the foundation for the rest of the piece.
All of the actors brought incredible life to their characters and displayed remarkable understanding and prowess of Shakespeare’s language. Each actor had a standout performance. The ensemble work on stage was lovely to watch. This was a cast that truly supported each other during the entire performance.
In all, Akerley’s piece was charming and insightful. It definitely resonates with theatre people but would likely be over the heads of those who are outside of the theatre world. It is a guaranteed intellectual, funny, and thought-provoking piece of art.
Running Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes with a 15 minute intermission.
Fear: a comedy? about performing Shakespeare is performing through September 4, 2016 at Longacre Lea performing at The Callan Theatre, Catholic University Drama Complex, 3801 Harewood Road NE in Washington, DC. Tickets can be purchased online.
