{"id":3760,"date":"2011-09-18T22:33:49","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T02:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/?p=3760"},"modified":"2011-10-02T23:35:48","modified_gmt":"2011-10-03T03:35:48","slug":"the-life-and-death-of-king-john-ny-shakespeare-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/?p=3760","title":{"rendered":"“The Life and Death of King John” – NY Shakespeare Exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not often that one gets to see The Life and Death of King John<\/em> (by William Shakespeare, no less), so when I received the press invite for the New York Shakespeare Exchange’s<\/a> production, I jumped at the opportunity. The play has a\u00a0curious history. It’s generally believed to have been written in the mid-1590s and published in 1598. There are accounts of the play’s popularity in the 1600s, but the first known production was in 1737. King John <\/em>reached its peak popularity during the Victorian Era and has since fallen into\u00a0considerable obscurity, and makes for a great punch line in the uproarious The\u00a0Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). <\/em>The play deals with the reign of King John, and the\u00a0controversies that surrounded his reign. It’s a bit of a mess, but I am grateful for the opportunity to actually see it onstage.<\/p>\n

The New York Shakespeare Exchange was established in 2009 with the intent of fusing Shakespeare with new media and modern technology.\u00a0King John <\/em>is their first full production, after several readings and\u00a0a\u00a0Shakespearean pub\u00a0crawl called “ShakesBEER<\/a>” (where do I sign up?).\u00a0\u00a0Set in a\u00a0contemporary Manhattan loft, using Skype, smartphones, HDTVs, flip\u00a0cams and a clever homage to TMZ, the production reflects a modern sensibility in almost every\u00a0capacity.\u00a0Artistic director Ross Williams<\/a>, who adapted the play to meet his directorial\u00a0concept\u00a0keeps his entire\u00a0company within sight of the audience at all times, staging the text at edge of your seat fever pitch that successfully feeds off the tension.\u00a0Some of the\u00a0video clips (Kate and William’s wedding, UK riots) go a bit overboard, but it’s still\u00a0fascinating to see how\u00a0Williams plays the past\u00a0and present off each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The strong\u00a0cast is led by Drama Desk nominee Vince Gatton as John, offering an amusing and\u00a0spirited exercise in entitlement and narcissism.\u00a0Carmen Meyers played Eleanor of Aquitaine\u00a0as if she were\u00a0a 21st century\u00a0corporate executive (though much to my disappointment, Shakespeare wasn’t as interested in\u00a0the character\u00a0as James Goldman was, but that’s neither here nor there). Another standout is Zac Hoogendyk, who made quite an impression as the Earl of Salisbury. Walking away with the entire show is Leigh Williams, whose\u00a0titanic performance as Constance is a triumph\u00a0of nuance and strength. My only\u00a0disappointment is that\u00a0the character doesn’t appear in the second act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For all its warts, I had a really good time with King John,<\/em>\u00a0more than I thought I would. The production, warts and all, made an interesting case for King John. <\/em>I’m not fully convinced that the high tech concept is necessary for the telling of the story, but it made the evening highly entertaining. Special kudos to the spirited fight choreography by Alicia Rodis, who really had the cast rolling around the apartment set (and in\u00a0a moment of inspired hilarity, had Eleanor using pepper spray).\u00a0One quibble, though:\u00a0I think the production could have benefitted from a larger venue. If this production is any indication, the New York Shakespeare Exchange is going to need one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s not often that one gets to see The Life and Death of King John (by William Shakespeare, no less), so when I received the press invite for the New York Shakespeare Exchange’s production, I jumped at the opportunity. The play has a\u00a0curious history. It’s generally believed to have been written in the mid-1590s and … Continue reading “The Life and Death of King John” – NY Shakespeare Exchange<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1244,1247,1243,1246,1245],"class_list":["post-3760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-king-john","tag-leigh-williams","tag-new-york-shakespeare-exchange","tag-ross-williams","tag-william-shakespeare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3760"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3766,"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3760\/revisions\/3766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}