Troilus & Cressida - Shakespeare in the Park

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 8:48am

I'm surprised to see that nobody has started a thread on this yet, at least as far as the search function can show. If I'm wrong, please direct me to the thread. 

I have to say, I was utterly blown away by this production. I thought it was absolutely phenomenal in virtually every regard. I have read the play before, and I had seen it once at OSF. The OSF production was good, and actually bore some similarities to this current production in terms of overall concept, but I found this production to be far better.

The direction is very tight and clear, with many moments throughout that illuminated elements in the text that hadn't occurred to me. The casting is flawless - each and every actor is perfectly cast to fit the director's vision of these characters in the updated time period. The production is visually and aurally engaging, with incredible fight choreography as well.

It's certainly not a perfect play, but I thought this production handled the material perfectly. It's interesting to compare this to The Merchant of Venice, which I saw Saturday night (the night before seeing Troilus), as some may know from reading that thread. In the Merchant of Venice thread, I remarked that the mix of comedic elements and dramatic elements felt out of sync and unfocused. By contrast, this production of Troilus and Cressida -- another pseudo-comedy -- achieves that blend extremely well (despite the fact that "Merchant" is arguably a more well-written play). 

I know I'm young and have many years of theatre-seeing ahead of me, but something tells me I'll never see a production of Troilus and Cressida as good as this one.

[cglaid]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 9:08am

I saw this last night. I have to agree with most of the above poster. The acting was spot-on. Everyone was great in their respective roles. I thought the first act maybe dragged a little bit (it was 90 minutes) but the second act (roughly 60) flew. All in all a really great night at the Delacorte. I was completely unfamiliar with the show beforehand, and found it easy to follow.

[richsmo]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 2:13pm

Thanks for the early reviews!

Any thoughts on age-appropriateness?

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 5:45pm

I was also there last night and found it to be a tight and strong production of a play that is really all over the place. It's Shakespeare, so of course some of the scenes are terrific, but there's so many dropped subplots and undeveloped characters. Still, this production makes a good case for it as a pretty unsettling play about the cost of war and how it warps humanity.

The acting is uniformly very strong. John Glover was the standout as Pandarus, and the actors playing Troilus and Cressida (I don't have my playbill to look them up) were quite strong as well. Their love scene was delightful and very charming. 

The play isn't the most disturbing in terms of violence, but there still is quite a bit of death, and in this production, huge amounts of gun fire in the last 20 minutes. I wouldn't take a child to see it, but most teenagers would probably be fine. 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 5:47pm

richsmo said: "Any thoughts on age-appropriateness?"

Depends on the age, of course. It's a very dark play with a lot of violence. In this production, there is quite a bit of loud gunfire and blood toward the end. There are sexual references throughout, but nothing super graphic. There is also a scene where Cressida is sexually assaulted, in which several men forcibly kiss her and touch her invasively, which could be potentially triggering to some. 

(I would have put the above in the spoiler tag, but it's a 400-year-old play, so I don't feel bad) 

I would tentatively say this production is about 13+, but it all depends on what you're comfortable with and how mature the kid is. 

 

[supersam1026]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 10:43pm

So happy to hear good reports! Does anyone have any updates on the line? What time do you think it would be safe to get there to ensure tickets?

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 11:00pm

supersam1026 said: "So happy to hear good reports! Does anyone have any updates on the line? What time do you think it would be safe to get there to ensure tickets?"

 

Well, I can tell you that I got there at 8am, and there was already a fair number of people there. I'm TERRIBLE at estimating both distance and crowd sizes, but I will try anyway and estimate that there were roughly 150 people in front of me. My place in line was still within sight of the theatre. Maybe 200 feet from the front of the line? I didn't have any problem getting tickets. By the time noon rolled around and the whole line condensed as a result of everybody standing up, the entire line only went to the bend in the road past the rock. It wasn't really all that long compared to past years. I wouldn't be surprised if everybody in line got tickets. I overheard that the first person in line got there around 4:30am, which is definitely not necessary to ensure tickets. 

I'll re-iterate: I'm not good at estimating crowd sized and distances, so take my info with a grain of salt. But I CAN assure you that I got there at 8am and had no trouble getting tickets. 

 

[supersam1026]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 11:08pm

Thanks JBroadway! I'm going tomorrow, and since it's a weekday, it sounds like being there by 8:30 (when I'm able to get there), shouldn't be a problem! I'll be sure to post how my experience is too!

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 11:38pm

Granted it was very hot on Sunday, but I walked up at 5PM yesterday and just got tickets. It definitely wasn't sold out, though the house was pretty full. 

[Jmjazz]

Posted: 7/27/16 at 4:27pm

The line is short for now, but the line is always crazy on the weekends and after the show officially opens.

 

Going to see it tonight. Will report back.