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| Walker Studios photo |
Audience members filtered in to the upper-level bar area of the café to partake of Porky’s pizza, and mingle with cast members before the performance.
Jeremy Funke was a tour de force in the leading role of Titus Andronicus as he took the audience along on his roller coaster ride from celebrated war hero to betrayed patriot and father down into the abyss of murder and madness.
Funke’s nemesis Tamora was played by Lawren Teel Roulier.
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| Walker Studios photo |
Jess Breda played the difficult role of that daughter.
Lavinia goes from a being young, carefree, recently betrothed girl to outcast and ultimately the victim of a vicious rape, who then has her tongue removed and hands severed to prevent her from revealing the identities of the perpetrators.
Breda was touching as she begged Tamora for mercy and mournful as the maimed, ruined, and mute survivor who received none.
Raphael Massie as Tamora’s true beloved Moor and party responsible for orchestrating all the brutal mayhem, was delightfully evil, his booming voice filling the room as he declared, upon being asked if he was sorry for his deeds, “I, that I had not a thousand more…Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things as willingly as one would kill a fly, and nothing grieves me heartily indeed, but that I cannot do ten thousand more.”
Some audience members found themselves more “immersed” in the action than they may have anticipated as blood spatter, severed heads and body parts made their way into the laps of unsuspecting innocent bystanders in the front rows. (Word of advice to future attendees: don’t sit in the first row unless you’re ready and willing to be drawn into the action.)
They were rewarded, though, for their participation as all who attended received Halloween goody bags and one lucky team won the grand prize of a Halloween-themed “Bucket o’ Booze.”
Adam Kezele, who played Demetrius, one of Tamora’s demented offspring, also served as the production’s fight champion, choreographing all of the fight scenes and designing and creating that completely washable “blood.”
The cast was comprised of both local and out-of-town talent, including Kristen Kingsley of Shelton, Tyler Huntley of Seymour, and Matthew Catalano of Stratford.
Funke and Massie are from New Haven, while Xander Johnson, Max Simone, Travis Robert Czap, Breda, Kezele, Roulier, and Simonetti travelled in from New York for the event.
Valley Shakespeare Festival plans to present another Shakespeare in the Bar performance this coming March, but before then it will reprise its holiday offering, a scripted dramatic reading of the Charles Dickens’ classic, “A Christmas Carol.”
The event will be held in association with the Shelton Historical Society and will be presented at Plumb Memorial Library at 7 p.m. Dec. 4 and again at 1 p.m. Dec. 6.
The Shelton Historical Society will host a reception at the Shelton History Center at 70 Ripton Road after the performance, at which audience members may tour the Society’s buildings and mingle with cast members.
The event is free, with a suggested donation of $10.
For more information on this and other upcoming events contact Valley Shakespeare Festival at 203-513-9446, or visit www.vsfestival.org, and follow on Facebook.
Valley Shakespeare Festival is a fiscally-sponsored, non-profit theater company dedicated to bringing free theater to the communities of the Lower Naugatuck Valley.
The play review and release were submitted by Shelton resident Cheryl O'Brien.
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