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Bottom’s Up! | Not even a giant ass can upstage Tom Edwards in Exit, Pursued by Bard.

DETAILS

Exit, Pursued by Bard
Varscona Theatre
Thursday, April 9 - Sunday, April 19

More in: Theatre

EXIT, PURSUED BY BARD
Directed by Troy O’Donnell. Written by David Belke. Starring Tom Edwards, Rebecca Starr, Matt Alden, Natasha Napoleao. Varscona Theatre (10329-83 Ave). To Apr 19. Tickets available through TIX on the Square (420.1757/www.tixonthesquare.com).
***1/2

Exit, Pursued by Bard opens quietly on a pair of janitors sweeping the theatre stage. This isn’t the opening one would expect for an evening of Shakespearean-themed sketches, scenes, and monologues, but the recurring characters (played with great energy by Matt Alden and Natasha Napoleao) are playwright David Belke’s way of demonstrating the universal cultural foothold of Shakespeare.

Going from Shakespeare haters to Shakespeare lovers to, well, just plain lovers over the course of the evening, Alden and Napoleao get to showcase one of the night’s most jubilant pieces of “writing,” a love scene consisting only of well-known phrases from the bard’s repertoire, a few used literally, but most for the bawdy fun of double entendres. (“What a piece of work is a man!”) This high point demonstrates Belke’s goals with Exit: to engage with the work of Shakespeare, to show his continuing cultural prevalence, and above all, to have fun.

Each of the four cast members steps up to the schizophrenic task of performing 19 scenes between them, but none as sublimely as Tom Edwards. In “Waking in Autumn,” his Puck is amusingly dejected as he tries to get his mischievous groove back, and in “Miranda Warning,” Belke’s “theory” on Prospero’s island exile in The Tempest, Edwards plays the overprotective dad with fatherly warmth and perfectly timed humour. (On keeping his teenage Miranda on a desert island: “No, that’s called parenting!”)

The show is best when it reimagines, but does not stray too far from, its source material. “King Hal” is a monologue by a modern woman (Rebecca Starr) who recounts her betrayal of a friend and compares it to Falstaff’s betrayal by Prince Hal. The story is vaguely tied back to a Shakespeare class, but it falls flat because really, it isn’t Shakespearean enough, and as a result, it doesn’t buzz with the same vibrant energy and humanity that the other pieces do.

Exit does manage to hit a few effective dramatic notes, however, as in “Unmotivated,” which showcases actress treachery behind the scenes of Othello. The piece works, in contrast to “King Hal,” because it converses with the source material, suggesting that the characters in Shakespeare’s plays don’t always have hidden textual motivations that can be pinpointed beyond rash reactions to base emotions. Napoleao, as a jealous wannabe Desdemona, plays the role with a bitter, Iago-like envy that anyone will recognize, if not relate to.

Several of the pieces are humorous poems, each focusing on a specific play. Belke writes the light iambic pentameter of these poems with a deft pen, and he gets to demonstrate his penchant for well-timed punchlines. Some of the poems though, in their brevity, could use bigger performances to make them more memorable, such as “A Lesson in Kingship” which retells the story of Richard III as a children’s book.

But really, the high points of Exit, Pursued by Bard more than compensate for those bits that don’t work as well, and as a whole, the show is fun and unpretentious. Knowledge of the Shakespearean canon will certainly enhance the experience, but there are enough pop culture references and sight gags — including a hilarious one featuring a particular Shakespearean ass — for Exit to provide laughs for everyone.