To be or not to be - that is the question
In high school I took AP English and I remember one summer the assigned summer reading was the complete works of William Shakespeare. I really got into it - reading the plays over and over, the tragedies were flawed, painful - so very emo. Perfect timing for high-school.
The tales stay with you for years, they are so ingrained in our culture new renditions of the plays rarely stray from the tried and true formula. So when I heard that L'Enfant Terrible was going to do a series of Shakespeare tragedies for kids (?!) I couldn't believe it. Now this I had to see.
The Kid has developed and interest in Shakespeare from reading the Magic Treehouse books. So I felt like this would be the perfect time to introduce him to some of the plays.
The performances are through the month of July at the Bootleg Theater but my July is booked SOLID. So figuring out timing wasn't easy. Luckily I had one day free AND I won tickets from the great L.A. Story blog (my go-to resource for fun things to do with kids in L.A.!)
As you can tell by the titles, L'Enfant's performances are based on Shakespeare's most famous tragedies...but with a twist: King O'Leary. Titus the Clownicus. Macbeth the Monster. We chose to see Hamlet, Prince of Puddles. Hamlet?! The tragedy mired in death, delusion and betrayal? Just how was this going to play to the younger set?
I am happy to say it was FANTASTIC. The kids boo'ed Claudius and cheered Hamlet! It was funny, touching and whimsical - the actors gave such an entertaining performance. But how did the Baby (who's 5) and the Kid (who's 7) feel about it? They loved it. Every minute of it they were intrigued, laughing - enjoying the entire show.
On the drive home the kids were discussing the characters, the plot line - it was great to see. And they even asked if they could go back to watch the other performances! I'd say that's a successful intro to Shakespeare.
The plays run for the next three weeks through July 31st.
L'Enfant Terrible
Fun Family Festival of Tragedy
The Bootleg Theater
www.lenfantterrible.org
The tales stay with you for years, they are so ingrained in our culture new renditions of the plays rarely stray from the tried and true formula. So when I heard that L'Enfant Terrible was going to do a series of Shakespeare tragedies for kids (?!) I couldn't believe it. Now this I had to see.
The Kid has developed and interest in Shakespeare from reading the Magic Treehouse books. So I felt like this would be the perfect time to introduce him to some of the plays.The performances are through the month of July at the Bootleg Theater but my July is booked SOLID. So figuring out timing wasn't easy. Luckily I had one day free AND I won tickets from the great L.A. Story blog (my go-to resource for fun things to do with kids in L.A.!)
As you can tell by the titles, L'Enfant's performances are based on Shakespeare's most famous tragedies...but with a twist: King O'Leary. Titus the Clownicus. Macbeth the Monster. We chose to see Hamlet, Prince of Puddles. Hamlet?! The tragedy mired in death, delusion and betrayal? Just how was this going to play to the younger set?
I am happy to say it was FANTASTIC. The kids boo'ed Claudius and cheered Hamlet! It was funny, touching and whimsical - the actors gave such an entertaining performance. But how did the Baby (who's 5) and the Kid (who's 7) feel about it? They loved it. Every minute of it they were intrigued, laughing - enjoying the entire show.On the drive home the kids were discussing the characters, the plot line - it was great to see. And they even asked if they could go back to watch the other performances! I'd say that's a successful intro to Shakespeare.
The plays run for the next three weeks through July 31st.
L'Enfant Terrible
Fun Family Festival of Tragedy
The Bootleg Theater
www.lenfantterrible.org
Labels: bootleg theater, kids, l'enfant terrible, los angeles, shakespeare
2 Comments:
Geez, you win everything. But Shakespeare for kids--awesome! Wish we were still local(ish) and could go see one of them.
Yay! I'm so glad you and your boys enjoyed it. And thanks so much for the shout-out! :)
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