Shakespeare's VILLAINS
Extended in 2014
After a phenomenal run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, VILLAINS is returning to the Lineage Performing Arts Center in 2015! Check back here for more details soon!
Imagine if Shakespeare's best villains were taken out of their respective plays, reassembled Frankenstein-style, and finally got to be the focus of their own stories. The California Shakespeare Ensemble will do just that in Shakespeare's VILLAINS as they weave three of the Bard's finest antagonists into one engaging 90-minute show, using only Shakespeare's original words.
This dark tragicomedy examines what it means to be a "villain". Shakespeare's most well-known villains like Iago and Richard III have a long history of fandom. But some of The Bard's more complex villains may actually show us how much evil is in all of us. Is Shylock really a villain? Is Macbeth?
The show follows three of Shakespeare's villains--Shylock (Merchant of Venice), Macbeth (Macbeth), and Tybalt (Romeo and Juliet)--using Shakespeare's original words and their own separate stories, but with a new adaptation and edit by CSE Artistic Director Brian Elerding.
Jeremy Radin as Shylock
Shakespeare's VILLAINS.
"To improve Shakespeare by way of editorial wit is to enact a miracle,
and the CSE has enacted a miracle."
-Ken Baumann, Baumannblog
"The shift in focus allows the audience
to view the characters in a different light...
Go, if you can still get tickets."
-Ellen Dostal, ShakespeareInLA.com
