Benjamin Barlow
Richard (Ian Hathway, left) menaces Lady Anne (Elliott Puckette) in a Richard III selection.
The Madison Shakespeare Company is going on a barnstorming tour of the area, exploring highlights of love, lust and depravity from the Bard’s plays.
An Evening’s Affair: Shakespeare’s Love and Conflict includes comedic and dramatic pieces excerpted from The Winter’s Tale, Richard III, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra.
“We have a pretty good balance,” says Jason Compton, producer and a member of the ensemble. “It’s not too heavy, not too light. We’ll more or less alternate between heavy dramatic scenes and ones that portray the lighter side, with more resolvable conflict.”
The production, which visited Barnes & Noble Booksellers at East Towne Mall on Aug. 5, will be presented in unusual venues through Aug. 9, including the west-side Barnes & Noble, the patio outside Porta Bella, an Oregon coffeehouse and Longfellow Lofts (a former school). “This is not an elaborate set and gorgeous costume production,” says Compton. “This is something that we move from venue to venue on a night-by-night basis, so it’s made to be about the story, about the performances, not about the conventional accessories of theater.”
Compton says putting on shows in nontraditional venues tends to broaden the audience: “People seem to respond when you bring shows a little closer to where they live and work.”
The Madison Shakespeare Company was formed in 2012 by John Varda, an accountant with the University of Wisconsin, and two employees from the city planning department: Steve Cover, who has since left Madison, and Warren Hansen, who serves as the company’s artistic director.
Initially formed to offer outdoor Shakespeare productions in Madison, the company staged Julius Caesar in 2012, and Antony & Cleopatra in 2013, both at Breese Stevens Field. In March, the troupe partnered with Madison College to produce Varda’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet at the school’s Mitby Theater.
An Evening’s Affair is the Madison Shakespeare Company’s first time presenting scenes rather than entire plays. Directors were drawn from the eight-person ensemble, and the excerpts will be introduced so audiences will understand the context. Compton says that, as an actor, the stripped-down production offers a challenge: “As a performer, you have to work [only] with what’s in your head, and what you can express with your body and voice, and the other people around you.”
An Evening’s Affair: Shakespeare’s Love and Conflict
Thursday, Aug. 6: Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 7433 Mineral Point Rd., 7:30 pm
Friday, Aug. 7: Longfellow Lofts auditorium, 1013 Mound St. (enter on Brooks Street) 7:30 pm
Saturday, Aug. 8: Firefly Coffeehouse, 114 N. Main St., Oregon, 7:30 pm
Sunday, Aug. 9: Porta Bella restaurant, 425 N Frances St., 2 pm
The production lasts about 80 minutes with no intermission. Reservations may be made online at AEA.mobi. Tickets are also available at the door, and a $10 contribution is suggested.
