Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 2009 In 2006, when this production of Hamlet, directed by Eleanor Holdridge and starring Jason Asprey with his real-life mother Tina Packer as Gertrude and his real-life step-father Dennis Krausnick as Polonius, was first presented at Shakespeare & Company, I was the only Berkshire area…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, October, 2006 This double bill, featuring a reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum and a stage adaptation of Edith Wharton’s Kerfol, is a modest little Halloween thrill. Shakespeare & Company has gone all out and decorated the lobby of the Founders’ Theatre with cobwebs…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2006 I am linking this review of the 2006 production at Shakespeare & Company to the 2007 production at Stageworks/Hudson because, with the exception of the actor playing John Mitchell, it is substantially the same production – same leading lady, same director, same designers.…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2006 I wanted to be sure to separate my reviews of Martha Mitchell Calling and No Background Music because I knew from the get-go that even though they are being performed as a double bill, they would be very different shows. I was right. Martha Mitchell Calling is a play, No…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, July, 2006 I usually hate to go out on Saturday night because then I miss my Brit-coms on PBS, Tony Simotes colorful and hilarious production of The Merry Wives of Windsor more than made up for my loss. Merry Wives is the ultimate Brit-com, and Benny Hill would have…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, July, 2006 I saw a wonderful new play yesterday called Hamlet. That is how I felt, anyway. Eleanor Holdridge’s staging of Shakespeare’s masterpiece made me feel as if I was seeing the play for the first time. As if it were some new work built out…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June, 2006 Enchanted April is a mediocre play based on a charming novel being given a far better production than it deserves at Shakespeare & Company. While this production is enjoyable and features fine performances in the leading roles by Diane Prusha and Tod Randolph, I…
by Gail M. Burns, AUGUST, 2005. “John, John, bad King John,Shamed the throne that he sat on…” Thus begins a poem by Herbert and Eleanor Farjeon that was my childhood introduction to this monarch. The illustration that accompanied it showed John, knees akimbo, posed as if ready to flee the…
