Syracuse Shakespeare Festival presents The Merchant of Venice
Enjoy this fine performance at S.U.'s Warehouse Theater located in downtown Syracuse.
Most people remember the moneylender Shylock who strikes a terrible bargain with the title character Antonio. Shylock lends Antonio money but extracts the payment of "a pound of flesh" if the money is not paid back on time. Their bargain leads to the tragic part of the story while the much sought after love of Portia's beauty and wealth, her maid-in-waiting Nerissa and Shylock's daughter dominates the romance. Throw in princes, friends, servants and clowns along with religious tenets, women disguised as men and the all-important ring and you have enough plot lines to appeal to everyone's taste. Directed by Sharee Lemos. Produced by Jamie Bruno.
For more information, call 315-476-1835. Tickets are available at TicketLeap.com and at the box office subject to availability. Parking at the SU Warehouse Washington St. lot is included in the ticket price!
Show times: Friday & Saturday 7:30pm; Sunday matinees 2:00pm
Tickets are $12 general admission, $10 for seniors (62+) and students and $5 for SU faculty, staff, students and alumni with ID as well as groups of 12 or more.Love vs. Time,' a new work at Syracuse Shakespeare Festival, draws on many talents and gathers momentum as it goes along Published: Saturday, April 14, 2012, 2:44 PM Updated: Saturday, April 14, 2012, 2:53 PM By Neil Novelli "Love vs. Time," a new play conceived and directed by Ronnie Bell, with book by Jamie Bruno, is based on one of those unanswerable questions: Which is more important in human life, Love or Time?
Seen at its premiere production by Syracuse Shakespeare Festival on Friday [April 13], "Love vs. Time" is one-of-a-kind, very much its own thing. It centers on 28 of Shakespeare's sonnets that deal with love and time. Bell's staging has several rows of seats facing each other about 20 feet apart. The play takes place between them, so that sight lines are good and no one is far from the action. There is a bit of formal framework, but it hardly dominates events. Two lawyers are in a debate, freely insulting each other as they go along. Jennifer Byrne argues for Love as most important, and she gets to make her case in the first act. Then in act two, Trevor Hill argues for Time.
At core, the work is designed to enact experiences of love, time and the interaction of the two. To do that, it draws on the creativity of a lot of people, including Bob Nicholson and the Syracuse English Country Dancers, who open the show. There are short vignettes, some silent, some spoken. Some serious, some very funny. There is a fair amount of simple and expressive dancing. There is some video, a film, and singing. The chorus of four actors -- Sarah Constable, Thad Striffler, Sarah Bradstreet and Aaron Alexander -- do great ensemble work as they transform themselves into countless characters in countless situations. And there are poets -- Seneca Wilson, Lanika Mabrey, Mozart Guerrier and Ruthine Angrand -- who add their 21st century voices to the mix. Through all the variety, "Love Vs. Time" is sublimely laced with music of all kinds.
Most of the music is provided live by Bells and Motley, the husband-wife musical team of John and Sondra Bromka, who play various Renaissance instruments. This is a work that takes a while to make its impact. SSF calls it a play, but instead of a clear plot, it provides various situations. It's a bit like walking along a stream with plenty of attractive eddies. And like a stream, it gathers force as it goes on. The effects of love and time are felt in depth and detail, and the episodes become increasingly immediate and involving. As bits of the debate unfold, it seems that the two lawyers are a version of Shakespeare's Benedick and Beatrice, the scrapping couple who are drawn to each other and are at their vitriolic best confronting each other. In its present form, "Love Vs. Time" at two hours, 40 minutes, is too long by about a half hour. Good as the lawyerly dialogue is, and excellent as Byrne and Hill are in their roles, some of the material is repetitive; I'd suggest that a fair amount of it could and should be cut. And one or two of the vignettes could be jettisoned.
The play is about much more than Shakespeare's sonnets, but at various intervals, as different themes emerge, a sonnet is projected in color on a large screen and performed. Sometimes one or more of the actors perform it. Sometimes a sonnet is sung by a live or a recorded voice. Once, and most beautifully, Sondra Bromka sings a sonnet to music composed by Bells and Motley, accompanied by herself on harp and by John on a bowed instrument with a haunting sound (a Swedish nickel-harp, as I found out later.) In a show with this much variety, you will find your own favorite moments. Some of mine: Mickey Mahan, in a clownish outfit plus bowler hat, accompanies himself on guitar as he sings Sonnet 61, "Is it thy will?" Then he follows with an adroit version of that sonnet that he wrote in modern English. In the second act he does the same with Sonnet 60, "Like as the waves," converting it into a witty 21st century meditation on time. Erin Reid, who choreographed the show, does a somber, powerful dance to Sonnet 19, "Devouring time." A short but gripping film, "When I have seen by time's fell hand," includes Amy Doherty performing Sonnet 64. The film, evidently shot at Green Lakes, is credited to Doherty and JT Lee, working under the aegis of Studio 24.
The opening of act two is sheer low comedy. A couple in bed is writhing under the blankets until whatever they are doing is terminated, unsatisfactorily one gathers. The couple turn out to be Shakespeare (Hill) and the Dark Lady of the Sonnets (Byrne). If I recall correctly, Hill immediately performs the apologetic Sonnet 23: "As an unperfect actor on the stage. / Who with his fear is put besides his part." Then comes the Earl of Southampton (Alexander), and when Shakespeare leaves the room Southampton immediately jumps into bed with the Dark Lady. Then in comes Shakespeare's wife (Constable) .... Amid all this variety, as the show draws to an end, the company join in on a quiet, very touching song.
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