Kabuki Shakespeare
by Benshibento on 6/17/14Ames Center (formerly Burnsville Performing Arts Center) - BurnsvilleThe great Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa understood the links between classical Japanese culture and Shakespeare when he adapted Macbeth as Throne of Blood and King Lear as Ran. The Green T theatre company, with Burnsville's Chameleon Theatre Circle, turned their own adaptive powers toward comedy with Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, perhaps his most popular comic play (attested by the fact that another production by another Twin Cities company was taking place concurrently). The broad gestures and non-Western tonalities of Japanese kabuki theater might take a bit of adjusting to at first, but the company made the transition work (with helpful notes about conventions of kabuki in the printed program). Undo reverence toward The Bard can sometimes dampen the popular appeal and broad comedy of Shakespeare, but the stylization and theatrics of kabuki allowed the comedy to come through in full force without stripping away the play's humanity. Green T veteran Ki Seung Rhee, who played Feste the fool and provided musical backgrounds at time, and newcomer Robb Krueger, as the arrogant-but-hapless Malvolio, were especially notable for their performances. The production, at Burnsville's beautiful Ames Cultural Center, was well worth the drive. I look forward to seeing more productions there and by Green T, which is liable to become one of my favorite offbeat Metro theatre companies.