Five reasons to see A Tender Thing
Credit to Author: Shawn Conner| Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2019 18:00:36 +0000
A Tender Thing
When: Sept. 6-29
Where: Jericho Arts Centre
Tickets: $23 to $29 at unitedplayers.com and at the door
1. Romeo and Juliet. Does Romeo and Juliet ever go out of style? It seems there’s a new take (or three) on the old story every year. First performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2009, A Tender Thing picks up the story of the star-crossed lovers as if they had never died, but lived together to middle/old age.
2. Ben Power. The British dramaturge drew on Shakespeare’s texts, mainly from Romeo and Juliet but also other sources. These include fragments of the Sonnets and a portion of Twelfth Night. Power’s other adaptations include a version of Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author set in a reality-TV studio.
3. Denyse Wilson. For a decade, Bard on the Beach’s leading lady of the ’90s played every young Shakespeare ingenue. She and Troy Skog (Romeo), a veteran Bard and Shaw Festival actor, are both returning to the stage after a 20-year hiatus.
4. Sarah Rodgers. Director Sarah Rodgers, best known for directing period pieces at The Arts Club Stanley, calls the play “simply breathtaking,” and adds, “I just love this beautiful, clever re-imagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Wouldn’t we all love to think of the most famous tragic lovers of all time living their life together long past youth?”
5. United Players. The small local company scored a coup when they won the rights to this piece. In Canada, it’s only been produced in Toronto and Victoria.