- OTHER MEDIA
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- review in the San Francisco Bay Guardian
- by Robert Avila
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- No Nude Men Productions and director Stuart Bousel infuse Shakespeare's
comedy with, if no naked bodies, then raw energy and a sexy, sassy humor
backed by ample doses of alt-rock–driven dance fever. King Ferdinand
(John Russell) and his three compatriots find their vows of cloistered
intellectual study and sexual chastity completely undone as soon as the
Princess of France (Kendra Arimoto) and her female retinue arrive on the
scene — the scene being Navarre as trendy bar, overseen by barkeeps-servants
Moth (Gina Seghi) and Nat (Lisa Rowland). The pursuit of knowledge turns
to pursuit of the opposite sex, as Shakespeare limns the different ways
men and women woo and fall in love in verbal fireworks sometimes admirably
but only inconsistently reproduced by Bousel's uneven cast. Still, somersaults
of language — especially from megawits Rosaline (Cassie Powell) and
Biron (Ryan Hayes) — find a raucous echo in dance numbers like that
between Armando (a slick and amusing Chris Carlone) and Jaquinetta (Alexis
Perry, who with actor Margery Fairchild, also supplies the vibrant choreography).
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