As this Shotspeare production of Shakespeare’s Othello itself warns
“We can’t force you to drink,
but it will make it better, we think.”
I can’t argue with that.
The chaos unfolding at the Spiegeltent, continuing through Saturday this week, is ostensibly Othello, and there are scraps of Shakespeare’s intentions throughout. Lines such as, “The beast with two backs,” Shakespeare’s own sly reference to sexual relations. And lots of characters die. Most of them. That’s very, very Shakespearean.
But in this production of Othello, much of that is overwhelmed by the hijinks of Matt Morgan and Heidi Brucker Morgan, yearly Rochester Fringe regulars who are also behind the Spiegeltent acrobatics of Cirque du Fringe: Anchors Away.
The company, a fixture at the Rochester Fringe, returns with its familiar Shakespearian gags, such as “The Wheel of Soliloquy,” which spins until it lands on instructions for the next action in the play, which is already far off course. Many of those actions rely on the actors drinking copious amounts of beer, including chugging beer through a funnel and plastic tube, like a college frat boy.
There are un-Bard-like gyrations by the actors, lots of codpiece adjustments, inflatable sharks and general chaos. Ping-pong balls cascade onto the stage, setting up a wild game of beer pong, in which the actors and the audience chase the ping-pong balls around the tent as they attempt to toss the balls into plastic beer cups.
The action is often played out to a non-Shakespearean soundtrack of Kool & the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie” and Ozzy Osbourne’s sinister call to get on board the “Crazy Train.”
Shotspeare continues throughout the remainder of the Fringe, through Saturday.
Jeff Spevak, a former sportswriter, a former arts writer, a former radio commentator, can be reached at jeffspevakwriter@gmail.com.