Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, November 1999 An uncut diamond looks just like a dirty rock. And if you gave one to me, it would stay a dirty rock for all eternity because I don’t possess the skill to turn it into a beautiful gem. That takes skill, precise workmanship,…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, November 1999 I have not seen “The Winter’s Tale” since that hazy period in my life BC (before children). Way back then I did a paper on Shakespeare’s “romances”, and I saw the scarcely performed play at the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut, with the…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 Generally considered to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote, “The Tempest” is neither comedy nor tragedy, romance nor history. It is a show of magic and love, revenge and forgiveness, natural and supernatural, coincidence and manipulation. Prospero’s brother Antonio has usurped him…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 Until last night, “Love’s Labors Lost” was one of a handful of Shakespeare’s plays that I had neither read nor seen performed. When I read up on the play in preparation, I discovered that it had long been considered one of the very…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 I am a great fan of Blythe Danner, and so I watched her as she made her way down the aisle to her seats last night, on the arm of her husband Bruce Paltrow. The nervousness was evident on their faces. Could their…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, July 1999 You know you are in for it when the third person credited on the program is the Lamentation Director. Shakespeare charges King Richard III of England (lived 1452-1485, reigned 1483-1485) with the murder of most of the House of York on his way…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, July, 1999 Roger Rees’ production of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” will make people fall in love with the theatre. That is a very very dangerous thing to do – parents are sobbing into their swiss-processed decaffeinated coffee this morning, rueing the day they…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 1999 Let me make this very, very clear. For 21 years now Shakespeare & Company has been mounting the Bard’s work at The Mount in Lenox. This year they are doing “as You Like It” along with three other Shakespeare plays. This production is…
