Shakespeare by the Bow offers up ‘a buffet of the best’ of The Bard
Prince’s Island Park is not big enough to host Shakespeare by the Bow and the Calgary Folk Festival at the same time, so the Bard and crew have to pack up their stage after the July 23 performance.
Save the tears.
The Shakespeare gang of emerging artists is moving over to St. Patrick’s Island with a new 40 minute show created especially for the period July 25 through 30.
Haysam Kadri, the program director of Shakespeare by the Bow, describes the mini show Victors, Villains & Vixens as “a buffet of the best of Shakespeare in 40 minutes and there’s no shortage of memorable scenes in the Shakespeare cannon.”
He stresses the show is a true collaboration.
“The idea behind this show was to challenge the young actors,” Kadri says. “I wanted to give them characters and scenes they wouldn’t normally play and which would allow them to flex different acting muscles and really let them work their chops.”
Kadri says he gave the actors some suggestions, but encouraged them to find scenes and characters they wanted to work on giving them ownership of the
show.
“Several members of the company expressed a desire to do a fight scene so Praneet Akilla is going to play Mercutio to Benjamin Jones’ Tybalt (from Romeo and Juliet)."
It wasn’t just the men who wanted to go to battle.
Jenny Daigle is drawing swords with Armin Karame in a scene from Henry IV.
Kadri recalls that Josie Jones said she wanted to do a gritty political scene, so he teamed her up with Conner Christmas for a scene between Brutus and Cassius in Julius Caesar.
"It’s exciting for the women to be able to play some of Shakespeare’s male characters.
“Kayla Bigras is going to play Edmund from King Lear as a vixen. I think these choices will be as exciting for the audience as they are for the actors.”
The show will feature three of Shakespeare’s most devious villains in Conrad Belau’s Richard III, Praneet Akilla’s Iago and Benjamin Jones’ Angelo (from Measure for Measure).
Recently there has been much debate about women playing such iconic male roles as Hamlet.
For Victors, Villains & Vixens, Connor Pritchard and Alexa Elser will play Hamlet as a mirror image showing us the male and female aspects of his character putting the gender debate to rest.
Kadri insists Victors, Villains & Vixens "is not just a bunch of scenes thrown together.
“We’ve created a through line to give it more context.”
Shakespeare by the Bow is a production of Theatre Calgary which is teaming up with the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation for Victors, Villains & Vixens.
The show is being staged in the Confluence Plaza area which Kardi points out is just a stone’s throw away from the zoo parking lot on the east end of St. Patrick’s.
You can also reach this area by using the George C. King Bridge.
This is a free presentation and performances begin at 7 p.m.
Following the run of Victors, Villains & Vixens on St. Patrick’s, the company of Shakespeare by the Bow will return to Prince’s Island Park to continue their run of As You Like It until Aug. 27.
Victors, Villains and Vixens will have noon time shows at Prince’s Island on Aug. 9, 11, 16, 18, 23 and 25.