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BWW Reviews: ARTFARM Makes the Case for Will Power with SHAKESPEARE'S ARGUMENT

Everywhere today, it seems that people are ready to fight. With Republicans and Democrats reached an impasse in the debt ceiling and Connecticut state workers unions in a life or death struggle with the governor, it seems that the new national pastime is to beat the tar on the other. In verbal punches at the agenda, why on earth would anyone choose to spend a warm summer evening watching an argument? When the fight is dotted with some of the most beautiful language ever written, and the fighters are a group of actors willing, the perspective is much more acceptable.

ARTFARM, one of the most unique theatrical treasures of Connecticut, has dusted off its first production for the company 10 makes the case for why the Bard of Avon won again after so many centuries. Performed at par outdoors in the Grove on the campus of Middlesex Community College, homebase of the band of Middletown, CT, the game is a fleet of 90 minutes incursion in ten of the most popular works of Shakespeare.  

With a ten-year history of producing outdoor Shakespeare in the summer, ARTFARM clearly knows its way around such classics as Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, has a fairly clever premise:  a professor, a producer and an actor argue over what makes Shakespeare connect with audiences.  The florid professor, played by ARTFARM founder/Artistic Director Marcella Trowbridge, believes it is the poetry that enraptures.  The practical producer, played by Annie DiMartino, posits that special effects, costumes, props and sets are what puts the butts in seats (or on the lawn).  The actor, played by Ken O'Brien, naturally feels the performances are what set Shakespeare apart.  The fourth character, "the groundling," played by Jesse Gabbard, represents the audience's viewpoint and tries to keep the peace between the quarrelling factions.  The excerpts from Shakespeare are connected by a series of debates and short synopses that set up the scenes written by Trowbridge with David Mur phy and Jean Wertz.