"Violent Delights" by Night Fire Theatre at the Crane Theater

#TCTheater artist Penelope Parsons-Lord developed Violent Delights, a compilation of scenes from Shakespeare that explicitly or implicitly connote violence, nearly 20 years ago in her native Australia. Last seen locally in 2019, it's only gotten more relevant, as our culture seemingly gets more violent every year. Violence is everywhere around us - on the news, in the games we play, in our language, and even in Shakespeare. Violence is so pervasive in our world that we sometimes don't even notice it (e.g., using the phrase "you killed it" to mean you did a great job), which is the premise of this piece. Penelope has reexamined these familiar works, pulling out "small moments of violence," and maybe now we can begin to recognize them in the real world. A talented nine-person cast plays too many characters to count, the scenes well chosen and woven together, combined with pop songs and movement to create a gripping tale that isn't one cohesive narrative, but still tells a story. You can witness these Violent Delights at the Crane Theater in Minneapolis through February 14.

If you're familiar with Shakespeare, it's fun to play "name that play," but you don't need to be a Shakespeare expert to get something out of this show. The scenes make sense in and of themselves, thanks to the performances and direction (by Penelope with Erika Sasseville), and if you are familiar with the plays they're pulled form, they may take on a different or deeper meaning in this context. I don't consider myself a Shakespeare expert, but I have seen a lot of his plays in the past 15 years as a theater blogger, and I recognized scenes from Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure, A Winter's Tale, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello, and I'm sure there are several more plays included that I missed. Some of the violence is obvious in plays like Macbeth, or Romeo and Juliet's tragic ending (played out to heartbreaking effect at the end of the piece), but some are from comedies, like Much Ado's bickering couple, or Midsummer's love quadrangle chasing each other through the woods. A scene from the latter is repeated multiple times throughout the show, each time interpreted by the same actors in ever more sinister ways, until it becomes uncomfortable to watch. Which is exactly the point.

photo courtesy of Night Fire

Everyone in the cast (Adam Rider, Ariel Pinkerton, Derek Dirlam, Isabelle Hopewell, Kevin Ealain, Krista Weiss, Maggie Mae Sulentic, Penelope Parsons-Lord, and Ryan Pierce) throws themselves fully into each scene, sometimes literally. This is a very physical performance by everyone, the violence in Shakespeare's words manifesting in pushing, shoving, hitting, and wrestling (choreographed by the director and fight and movement co-creator Maggie Mae Sulentic). From the cozy audience seating on either side of the stage, it feels almost uncomfortably close. 

The cast performs barefoot, wearing gray and black tunics over loose black pants and a black shirt, with multi-colored ties around the waist. The performance space is empty, with a heart composed of shredded red fabric hung on the back wall. The lighting design supports the tone of each scene and delineates them, and the sound design includes pop songs, which the cast sings in a way that makes you realize that many pop songs are sinister if you really listen to the words instead of just the poppy fun music.

The overall effect of the show is unsettling, as we recognize the violence hidden (or not so much hidden) in familiar words, scenes, and stories. Violent Delights show us a new side to these plays we think we know, and draws parallels among them, and to our present world.