Page 135 - 2017 Yearbook

Coming into the PAC, I was hesitant to believe that both “hilarious” and “Shakespeare” could be used in the same sentence. I was never a fan of Shakespeare, usually because it takes me so long to translate the complicated language into contemporary English. But once the play began, I was immediately pulled towards the beauty of the set. The perfect placement of every column, the color of the buildings, and the minimal use of vines all came together in perfect harmony to create the beautiful town of Messina. As I suspected, as soon as the first characters stepped onto the set, I had no idea what they were saying. I could only figure out what was going on by watching the characters interact with each other.
However, by the end of the play, I could easily make out its plot. I am the type of person to understand a reading while annotating it, and with live productions, I feel like I can only really take everything in once I’ve seen it all. The story begins as some of the men and women are returning from war and are being welcomed by Leonato (played by sophomore Hannah Sheridan), along with her family. Claudio (played by
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junior Max Habeck) quickly falls in love with Lenato’s daughter and asks to marry her. The main characters on the other hand are Benedick (played by senior Ryan Calbert) and Beatrice (played by junior Francesca Cohn) who have a knack for insulting each other and others. Their friends and family are determined to make Benedick and Beatrice see past fighting each other and realize that they are meant to be. They do so by making Benedick and Beatrice think that the other is in love with him/her already. And with the help of human nature, they convince themselves that they are in fact in love with each other. The villains of the play are in such dismay with the happiness of others that they feel it appropriate to trick Claudio into thinking that his soon to be wife is unfaithful. On their wedding day he is so corrupted by anger that he humiliates her in front of everyone and she “dies” of shame. In the end, she is brought back to life by the grief of her fiancé and they end up remarrying alongside Benedick and Beatrice.
Overall, this production lived up to its hype with its successful portrayal of complex characters navigating a complicated plot line.
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