by Gerald C. Rivers | May 29, 2015 | Theater
Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum kicks off its 2015 Americana season on Sunday, June 7 with an all-American staging of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, re-set in the divided South of the post-Civil War era and featuring traditional American folk music and dance from that...
by Gerald C. Rivers | Jun 24, 2014 | Theater
Considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies by such luminaries as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley, King Lear also has been taken to task for its wanton cruelty by the likes of Samuel Johnson, and writers Charles Lamb and A.C. Bradley have...
by Gerald C. Rivers | Jun 19, 2014 | Theater
Considered Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy, Theatricum artistic director Ellen Geer takes on the title role of the aging monarch that sees Lear divide her kingdom and test the loyalty of her three sons. Yet, this Lear, directed and interpreted by Ellen Geer and Melora...
by Gerald C. Rivers | Jun 17, 2014 | Theater
The Theatricum Botanicum summer production of Lear is a must see. The outdoor theater is one of the most beautiful in all of Southern California with an ambiance that is both inviting and magical all at once, as if you’ve unknowingly stepped into a summer Narnia and...
by Gerald C. Rivers | Jun 13, 2014 | Theater
A frightening thing happens when a woman plays the title role in a gender-reversed King Lear; the betrayal and revenge between mother and sons takes on an added level of horror. What was already tragic to begin with, as originally written for a father and daughters,...
by Gerald C. Rivers | Jun 11, 2014 | Theater
As with most plays from antiquity, Shakespeare is difficult to adapt for modern times. History is rife with sexism and racism and all of the other horrible-isms we’ve made so much progress against, and the stories of the times are not immune. Granted, Shakespeare is...
