The Shakespeare Post

ShareThis Print This Page

Updated…

The Nova Arts Project, a young alternative theatre company in Houston, Texas, has undertaken a herculean task that most experienced companies would never attempt. Nova Arts is performing the eight plays that make up Shakespeare’s history cycle in one day.

Unlike the Royal Shakespeare Company, which recently performed the complete history cycle in full, Nova Arts has chosen to present abridged versions of each play. Since staging full productions of “Richard II,” “Henry IV,” Parts 1 and 2,” “Henry V,” “Henry VI,” Parts 1, 2 and 3 and “Richard III” wasn’t possible, Nova Arts directors Clinton and Amy Hopper decided that each play would be condensed down to a half-hour. The eight plays were divided between eight directors who were given the task of deciding how to approach and abridge the material. In keeping with the spirit of condensed Shakespeare, eleven actors perform all of the roles in the marathon production.

The project, which is called “The War of the Roses Cycle,” opened last week and runs through the middle of July. Audience members can choose to watch all eight plays in a single day or view them in two groups of four plays on consecutive nights. The entire cycle is presented on Saturdays while the two shorter programs are offered on Thursdays and Fridays.

Cutting a Shakespeare play down to size isn’t necessarily easier than producing the full play and the Houston theatre critics are a house divided over whether the “War of the Roses Cycle” succeeds or not.

Everett Evans of The Houston Chronicle writes, “Allowing each director to do his own thing may be great for the group’s creative freedom, but it doesn’t serve Shakespeare or the audience’s need for a coherent, dramatically effective take on this far-flung material…A couple of the plays are treated in straightforward fashion, extensively trimmed but true to the originals. Others are mangled in such extreme styles as to become unrecognizable; they might be exercises in an “Interpreting Shakespeare” workshop. Still others are turned into outright travesties in a “Look, we’re being cute with Shakespeare!” approach that comes off amateurish, precious and self-indulgent.”

But D.L. Groover of the Houston Presssays that the production works despite some faults. Groover writes, “Think of Nova’s cycle as Elizabethan cabaret. The eight directors have conjured a little bit of everything and something for everyone. Yes, it’s uneven, and a pair of editing shears should be employed, but the evening holds together. That, of course, has a lot to do with Shakespeare. No matter how you slice and dice him, the Bard remains supreme. Just to hear snippets is pleasure enough”

“The War of the Roses Cycle” runs through July 19 at the Nova Arts Project at Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex in Houston Texas.

Web Resources:

Nova Arts Project website

Houston Chronicle theatre review

Houston Press theatre review