Tag Archives: Shakespeare’s tragedies

Review: Emursive presents Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More

Early in April (the first weekend of April) I made a trip to New York City to watch a couple of theatre productions for one of the blogs that I write for. While there I saw Disney’s the Newsies the Musical and Once the Musical… in fact my impressions of those particular shows have been posted on my blog already.

There is one show – if it can be considered a “show” – that I also went to that went beyond all words and description that it literally took me a few months to truly comprehend what I had experienced and realized that when I go back to New York, I would be more than willing to plop down more to see the production a few more times. Yes, a few… and I’ve already “seen” it twice.

British Theatre Company: Punchdrunk made the trip over the ocean to introduce the Americans to a new kind of theatre experience with the presentation of Sleep No More. They first made their debut in Brookline, Massachusetts, when they took over an abandoned school and transformed it into a variety of scenes that delve into the world of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and tying this Shakespearan tragedy into the world of the Speakeasy / Film Noir.

Even now I am having difficulty organizing my thoughts on this fantastical production. I’ll see what I can do though:
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Review: Shaking Spears (a conglomerate of Shakespeare’s tragedies set to the music of Britney Spears)

Yes you read that right… one of my theater acquaintances wrote a stage play taking four works of Shakespeare’s tragedies
– Macbeth
– Romeo & Juliet
– Hamlet
– Julius Ceasar
taking various aspects, storyline lines, and characters and created a singular storyline. Not only that, she had various characters (including two of the male leads) sing Britney Spears songs…

Now upon first glance this shouldn’t have worked, Shakespeare and Britney Spears? I could hear Shakespeare rolling in his grave. However, the truth of the matter is that somehow, someway it did and I will be the one that would grudgingly admit that I was wrong in my original take of this particular ditty (and I really don’t like having to eat my words).

Let me explain:

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