Reviews for Hidden Room Theatre Performances
Review: Houdini Speaks to the Living by Hidden Room Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 25, 2016
Director Beth Burns, magician Patrick Terry and ardently appreciated Ausin actor Robert Matney provide a masterful and eye-opening brief evening of entertainment and reflection.
Matriarch of the Hidden Room Theatre Beth Burns already had access to a venue appropriate for this conversation on the shadowy mysteries of the afterlife. The third-floor meeting hall of the York Rite Masonic Temple downtown on 7th Street has been an ample but problematic space for other innovative costumed works. Its long rectangular space, generally deficient lighting, platforms with throne-like wooden chairs at either extreme of the room and awkward entrances and exits have …
Nahum Tate, Knock-offs, Lear and 'Tatefication'
by Stephen Meigs
Published on November 18, 2015
Nahum Tate fits Willy Loman’s definition of a loser: “He was liked… but not well liked.”
Toward a Traditional Trampling of the Reputation of Mr. Nahun Tate The History Of King Lear, Nahum Tate’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic, was popular for 150 years. But that’s not his only claim to fame. Tate also wrote lyrics for a Christmas carol still sung today, “While Shepherds watched their flocks at night, ” here performed by the King’s College Choir in 2011. No Blanche Dubois, Mr. Tate had no use for strangers. He depended …
Review: The History of King Lear, Nahum Tate adaptation by Hidden Room Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on November 11, 2015
Beth Burns' version of Nahum Tate's reworked KING LEAR could be subtitled 'Restoration Cinematic Kabuki.' Strongly recommended!
The English Restoration was made in 1660, and 21 years into Charles II’s reign Nahum Tate premiered his History of King Lear in London. The play was a strong rewriting of Shakespeare’s King Lear, much to Restoration tastes. Tate’s tale of the mad, storm-crawling king with two treacherous daughters held sway on stages for 150 years, it is said, until there was something of a Shakespearean restoration. Thereafter, Tate’s version was effectively lost. Enter Beth …
Review: Arden of Faversham by Hidden Room Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 22, 2014
Who knew that dusty old unperformed plays could be such fun? The Hidden Room, that admirable project of Beth Burns, is devoting three weekends to bringing back to life Elizabethan scripts that may -- or may not -- have had William Shakespeare as an unacknowledged collaborator (mind you, almost everyone was uncredited in the theatre of the day). Scholars have attributed 37 works to the Bard, and there's always speculation about more. These are not …
Der Bestrafte Brudermord, or Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
by David Glen Robinson
Published on January 21, 2014
This is the puppet show version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Never heard of it? That’s quite understandable, because its very existence was pieced together by rarefied world-class literary research by Oxford professor Tiffany Stern. The initial clue to its existence was a sketchy scenario found in a German monastery in 1710 and published in 1780 as Der Bestrafte Brudermord, translated as The Punished Fratricide. The characters and plot are almost all from Hamlet. …
Review: Der Bestrafte Brudermord by Hidden Room Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 20, 2014
William Shakespeare is a time machine. We attend performances of his work and it transports us four centuries or more back in time, to an imagined realm of rich language, amazing characters and astounding intrigue. Even in stagings done in modern dress, like that Beach Boy Love's Labor's Lost staged by Robert Faires for Austin Shakespeare in 2011, or in altered context such as artistic director Ann Ciccolella's Latino-flavored Romeo and Juliet for the same …