Articles Tagged With: The Rude Mechanicals

Aparna Sri (left) as Lady Macbeth and Jaki Demarest (right) as Macbeth 📷 Constantia Rioux

Macbeth at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews February 4, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

“Such welcome and unwelcome things at once ‘tis hard to reconcile.” Macduff, ActIVsc.iii

I spent hours trying to find the way I felt about the current Rude Mechanical’s production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth only to have Billy Bard having already wrapped it up for me more than halfway through the show. This particular production is a balancing act of strong performances, questionable conceptualizations, impressive technological inclusions, mismatched aesthetics, and a barrage of death,

Ill Met By Moonlight at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews September 1, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther 2 Comments

What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here? Tis a crew of Rude Mechanicals and they indeed find themselves Ill Met By Moonlight. Some six years in the making, TRM finally gets to bring their dream production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to light. UV light, that is. Playing at the Greenbelt Arts Center through September 9th 2023 and Directed by Joshua Engel, this judiciously rendered production of Midsummer is not your grandfolks’ fairy-tale.

The Beaux’ Stratagem at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews March 30, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s all true— it’s all true— hilarity will ensue! Down at The Dew Drop Inn— you’ll laugh too— it’s all true! Now granted, my lyrical composition isn’t nearly as hysterical as Jaki Demarest’s when it comes to scribbling together crackpot-laughable words for the 70’s heehaw hoe-down spin-about that happens pretty darn close to the end of Act I with some of the blokes box-stepping ‘round one another in sheer nonsense-grade bliss. Wait— sorry— TIMEWARP!! Back it up— all the waaaay back to the 1970s,

The Belle’s Stratagem at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews February 2, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Men are all dissemblers, liars, deceivers! Or something like it, so says playwright Hannah Cowley, author of The Belle’s Stratagem. Not to be confused with The Beaux’ Stratagem, by George Farquhar (though if you stick around in a few weeks’ time, you may see exactly that show on The Rude Mechanicals’ stage!) Belle hit Drury Lane in 1780 whereas Beaux debuted quite a few decades before (and at Theatre Royal) in 1707.

12 Angry Women at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews September 2, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

What is a reasonable doubt? Google + Merriam-Webster says, “A reasonable doubt exists when a factfinder cannot say with moral certainty that a person is guilty or a particular fact exists. It must be more than an imaginary doubt, and it is often defined judicially as such doubt as would cause a reasonable person to hesitate before acting in a matter of importance.” Perhaps we’re not asking the right question. Perhaps the question should be “what causes someone to have reasonable doubt?” If you want the answer to that,

The Rude Mechanicals at Artistic Synergy of Baltimore

News July 28, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Move over, Tom Stoppard (and also Disney-Marvel-verse). You no longer hold the market on “origin backstory/alternate POV” when it comes to Shakespeare. That’s right, there’s a new— okay, not new, per say— but there’s another option when it comes to doing weird stuff with Shakespeare that isn’t Shakespeare but still is totally Shakespeare. And Artistic Synergy of Baltimore’s children’s performance group has got it. The Rude Mechanicals, by Ed Graczyk, is now appearing on the ASoB stage,

Cymbeline at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews November 5, 2021 Amanda N. Gunther

Hello.

My name is Amanda Gunther.

You killed all 37.

Prepare to be reviewed.

Going out with a rather impressive bang— though by no means are they finished producing or existing— The Rude Mechanicals, now in full-time residence at The Greenbelt Arts Center, have attained one of their coveted company goals: Produce all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays. Cymbeline, Directed by Erin Nealer, completes the quest of all 37.

The Country Wife at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews August 14, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

For my part, I will have only those glorious, womanly
pleasures of being very verbose and very favorable to The Rude Mechanical’s
production of William Wycherley’s The Country Wife. A far cry from very
slovenly, though indeed ‘tis very drunk, this quirky Restoration comedy
(apparently there was humor in the restoration era) under the direction of Alan
Duda, finds its footing not in its original setting but rather in the posh and
swanky New York City of the 1950’s.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews June 14, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

Mendacity is the system we live in. Death is one way out.
Liquor is the other. Unless of course the crystal decanter top fuses into the
bottle-neck and prevents you from your liquor. (Try the screw-top.) Feeling a
little uncomfortable yet? A little like a Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof? Then you’ve found your way to The Rude Mechanical’s
production of Tennessee Williams’ other play, or his other, other play. Not the
one with the street-screaming for Stella or the one with all the little glass
animals and the jonquils and gentlemen callers,

Uncle Vanya at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews February 16, 2019 Holly Trout

Amanda N. Gunther | TheatreBloom

Uncle Vanya, written by Anton Chekhov, is the story of a group of people embittered by loss, disappointment, disillusionment, and hardship, and the power of faith through adversity. A retired professor, Alexandre (Bill Bodie), and his glamorous young wife Yelena (Erin Nealer) visit the rural estate that funds their city lifestyle. The estate is run by Vanya, (Nathan Rosen) Alexandre’s deceased former wife’s brother,

Timon of Athens at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews September 1, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

How goes the world? A loaded question if ever there was one to be asked, especially in this day and age. But set yourself back from this day and age, set your dial of existence back to 1978 in order to prepare yourself to digest The Rude Mechanicals’ latest offering: Timon of Athens. Directed by Joshua Engel, this miscreant play of Williams Shakespeare’s is finding a new lens through which to be viewed in the hands of The Rude Mechanicals.

The Merchant of Venice at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews June 18, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Neither a borrower nor a lender be. While The Rude Mechanicals aren’t currently producing Hamlet, there’s logic in that quote that could and should be readily applied to The Merchant of Venice, which The Rude Mechanicals are currently producing. Said advice would go far for both Antonio and Shylock and save everyone the trouble of their various plights fraught with woe and unfortunate circumstances. But alas, Shakespeare didn’t pen it that way,

Henry VIII at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews January 12, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther 1 Comment

“Men’s evils manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.” And we shall now ascribe the virtues of The Rude Mechanicals production of Henry VIII in ink. Well, digital ink. Directed and Choreographed by Liana Olear, this ‘lost history’ (the most boring of the boring and banal of banal Shakespearean histories) is revitalized and given a new lease on life. Olear’s strategic placement of the historical recounting of the eighth Henry in the mid 1910’s lends itself to her dancer’s passion,

Arden Now at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews August 30, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

A collaborative adaptation of As You Like It by William Shakespeare; this is the marketing tag for The Rude Mechanical’s latest production— Arden Now— which debuted earlier this summer at the 2017 Capital Fringe Festival. Now playing at the Greenbelt Arts Center for a two-weekend engagement, the doors have been opened to those unwilling or unable to attend the chaotic frenzy that is CapFringe, and the stage is a veritable carnival of concepts that don’t quite come together as Director Melissa Schick intends in her director’s note.

Leanne Stump (left) as Katherine and Liana Olear (Right) as Alice in Henry V

She Speaks at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews June 2, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

What fire is in my ears? All of Shakespeare’s women in one show? Can it be so? Well, that might be a bit absurd, even for The Rude Mechanicals, but they do come close, featuring a varied assortment of all of the Bard’s leading ladies in just shy of two hours’ stage traffic! Conceived and Directed by Leanne G. Stump, this selection of scenes showcases some of the finer moments of Shakespeare’s female characters,

The Life and Death of Richard II at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews March 24, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Discomfort guides this servant’s tongue, you see

When first to speak on the venue known as the DCAC

But fear not, playgoers, for I share with you

Good news of The Rude Mechanicals and their show of Richard II

Laboriously titled The Life and Death Of

They present to you from one floor above

A judiciously rendered version that moves quite free

Of this early and poetic tale of history

Directed by Michael F.

Review: Henry V at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews September 1, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

Suppose within the girdles of the Greenbelt Arts Center’s walls are now confined two mighty forces— The Rude Mechanicals: a community theatre troupe that delivers judiciously trimmed and readily accessible Shakespearean plays— and Henry V: Shakespeare’s middle Henry history play. Directed by Rebecca Speas, this muse of fire finds its place among the Bard’s canon in true Rude Mechanicals style and delivers swiftly the plot, the point, and the perfectly pared-down rendition of what is otherwise a lengthy history lesson in the trajectory arc of Prince Hal to King Harry.

Once More Into the Breach: An Interview with Allison McAlister and Rebecca Speas on Henry V

Interviews August 29, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more! But what if it’s your first time into the breach, like it is for Director Rebecca Speas, who’s taking Henry V out for her first full-length directorial debut? Or you’re newcomer Allison McAlister fresh to the Maryland theatre scene by way of North Carolina and delving into the titular role of the show? In a TheatreBloom exclusive interview, we sit down with Rebecca and Allison to get an idea of what muses stoke their fire when it comes to the Bard and his great history lesson.

Review: Henry IV Parts I & II at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews June 4, 2016 Paul Davis

Before Luke Skywalker becomes a man, he started out hanging out with an old man and a pack of ne’r do wells in a crap bar while his dad and more useful sibling were out there ruling the universe. George Lucas snagged a page from Shakespeare and made it his own into the form we know and love today. The Rude Mechanicals have taken this tumultuous two-part history of Henry IV about life,

Review: All’s Well That Ends Well at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews January 15, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther 1 Comment

Girl wants boy. Boy wants different girl. Girl tricks boy into wanting her. And they live happily ever after. Other stuff happens. There’s a fool involved somehow. And a king. And a fistula. That the girl magically cures the king of with her magical powers, or her herbs and whatnot. And then they live happily ever after. Also some love letters and a ring. Maybe some secretive identities, a ten-o’clock kidnapping, and a horse?

Review: The Life and Death of King John at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews August 25, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Ne’er so bethump’d with words has this critic found herself when staring down an amalgamation of a Shakespearean remount dipped in Pythonian humor and sprayed liberally with truncation across the Greenbelt Arts Center’s intimate black box stage, than she has in this very moment in attempting to report upon The Life and Death of King John as presented by The Rude Mechanicals. A history most boring upended ass over tea-kettle by Director Alan Duda,