James Wilson takes a look at Arden of Faversham from Red Bull Theater:
In adapting Arden of Faversham, the anonymously written domestic tragedy from 1592, Jeffrey Hatcher and Kathryn Walat explain in a program note that they intended to merge the tragic and farcical elements of the Elizabethan original to create a version that might be akin to a Coen Brothers film. To that end, the production presented by Red Bull Theater and currently running at the Lucille Lortel Theatre merges film noir, slapstick comedy, presentational acting conventions, and blank verse. The components do not always cohere, but there is a fair amount of grisly pleasure in this marriage of Macbeth and No Country for Old Men. |
