Shakespearean Godfather

Tonight, Linda and I revisited the story of Antonio Andolini's boy Vito, also known as Don Vito Corleone, told in the style of William Shakespeare. An interesting idea translated surprisingly well to a cast of eight local talents on a small stage with no real breaks of any kind. The non-stop presentation went smoothly and did an impressive job of covering the bases of the three hour epic told by Coppola in 1972 in half the time. The small cast meant that nearly every player played many roles. It was very helpful to have recently seen the movie to keep the characters straight. Like the movie, the hits just kept coming. Unlike the movie, the gunplay was converted to swords and daggers. From time to time, to deal with certain challenges or to reduce the overall length, some scenes were reduced to narrative accounts of what happened elsewhere. Noticably lighter than the movie, this play had us smiling more often than not.

The Theater for a Change has an interesting schedule coming up. I'll be keeping my eyes open for other opportunities to help keep them going.