Ashland Show 3: The African Company Presents Richard III (Seventh Show of the 2011 Season)

This afternoon's show represents a departure from the traditional Shakespearean Canon, but it had enough Shakespeare in it that Amanda and Wendy felt that it should be included in this blog. The African Company Presents Richard III by Carlyle Brown (originally produced in 1987) recounts the real life story of an 1820 all black theater company in New York City whose production of Shakespeare's Richard III so threatened that of the white theater company, who was producing the same play, the white company felt compelled to have the African company shut down.  The black actors were arrested simply for having the audacity to want to put on this classic play.

Amanda would rate the venue to be a 10 because today the configuration of the stage in the Bowmer was  considerably different than 24 hours ago. Yesterday, the stage was a standard proscenium arch staging whereas today the stage had been converted into a thrust staging which brought an incredible immediacy of the actors to the audience. Amanda liked that they were "right there". In our seats, house right three rows back, we could literally see actor Michael Elich spray the stage with spit as he talked, and we could see the wig tape on actor Peter Macon's temples.



Amanda would rate the production to be an 8 because although the performances were uniformly strong by all seven actors, the play's structure itself was fairly formulaic. Each actor had his or her moment in the spotlight, to wax poetic about their slave background or their journey toward becoming an actor. The sections showing the actors either performing or rehearsing their production of Richard, were greatly enjoyed by Amanda and made her want to go and see Richard III as it was intended by Shakespeare. It was also funny to see them using the broad, over-the-top gesticulations common for that era.



Matching To Be or Not To Be rings!



Wendy would rate the venue to be a 10 as well, because of the wonderful acoustics and comfy chairs. She also loved the little old lady that was in the lobby selling individually wrapped truffles to benefit the Tutor Guild (the huge gift shop in Ashland where you can get everything from Shakespearean hats to posters to rings with quotes engraved in them).

Wendy would rate the production to be a 6 because even though the show was interesting, she did not enjoy the long monologues. She also did not like the white theater owner, played by Michael Elich, because she felt that he was overly sarcastic and mean to the African company. Wendy understands that he was just trying to play his part, but she felt that he could have toned it down on the insulting manner in which he talked to the African company. Wendy was also disappointed because usually after a show, she feels something and it makes her want to go out and change the world, or do a dance number on the street, or even randomly confess her love for a stranger on the street, but with this show it was not the case. Even after seeing the actor talk with Gina Daniels, Wendy wasn't moved as much by this show as she would have liked.

On the other hand, Amanda was deeply moved by the show and felt extremely uncomfortable with the burden of "white man's guilt" as she sat next to an African American couple. "I just wanted to lean over and tell them that my people never had slaves," she says.  For her part, Amanda thinks that Michael Elich's portrayal of an 1820's theater owner was "spot on" and that his character would have really been that condescending and awful.