Review: AFTER SHAKESPEARE at the Ottawa Fringe Festival

Wolfe is a skilled and enigmatic storyteller, finding elements in each character's story that mirror modern issues, keeping them relevant.

By: Courtney Castelino Jun. 20, 2025

There are very limited chances left to see Slade Wolfe Enterprises Limited's production of After Shakespeare, starring Lexi Wolfe at the 2025 Ottawa Fringe Festival.

Review: AFTER SHAKESPEARE at the Ottawa Fringe Festival Image

Wolfe crossed the proverbial Pond (more specifically, Dover, U.K.) to bring the play to Ottawa audiences after its success at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023. In fact, the show was so immensely popular that they are having an encore run at the Edinburgh Fringe again this year.

In After Shakespeare, Wolfe embodies four of the Bard's famous characters: Henry V, Hamlet, Portia, and Lady Macbeth in a series of monologues. Each character reflects upon their life and recounts tales that show a different side of their character, sometimes sympathetic, and sometimes not.

Wolfe is convincing in each role, adopting different mannerisms and accents to make each character unique, rather than relying solely on costume changes. The wardrobe changes, together with falling and rising lights, are used to signify the end of one story and the beginning of the next so that each scene has a clearly defined structure.

Since the set and props are minimal and Wolfe is the only actor on stage, this is the type of environment where one falter could throw the entire show off kilter; however, Wolfe is a skilled and enigmatic storyteller. After Shakespeare finds elements in each character's story that mirror modern issues, keeping them relevant, despite the centuries' gap in the timeline. Each morsel is just long enough to be satisfying without lingering too long on the palette.

An imaginative and captivating play, you will thoroughly enjoy After Shakespeare if you are a fan of the author - although you don't need to know the characters' respective plays to be able follow the stories.

See After Shakespeare through June 21st at ODD Box during the Ottawa Fringe Festival. You can also click here for an inside look at the show with the creators of After Shakespeare.

Get tickets by clicking the link below or click here for more information about what's on at the Fringe this year.

Click Here to Get Tickets

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