![]() ![]() One of them has at least 5 shots of whiskey and then they. DRUNK SHAKESPEER PROFESSIONALWabash, 77,, $59, $500 for “King” Experience” (includes champagne and cocktails), 21+. SYNOPSIS: 5 professional New York actors meet as members of The Drunk Shakespeare Society. Through 11/30: Wed 8 PM, Thu 7:30 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 10 PM also Sun 8/4, 2 PM Sun 8/11, noon Tue 8/13, 7:30 PM Sun 8/25, 1 PM Sun 9/1, 7 PM no shows Thu 10/31 or 11/28, Lion Theatre, 182 N. Every night in The Gallery, a hidden Victorian drawing room on the 4th floor of an NYC hotel, five classically-trained actors meet as members of The Drunk. One suspects that they’re honoring the Elizabethan tradition, after all. Together, this cast embodies a new kind of “triple threat”-they can make Shakespeare’s dialogue sing, they can ad-lib through the most ridiculous situations, and they can hold their liquor. (Kudos to the bar staff who also kept libations coming for patrons throughout.) You have to be pretty damn smart to make something that sounds this stupid on paper feel exhilarating rather than exhausting. In a hidden speakeasy, five classically-trained actors assemble for their sacred. In the tiny speakeasy-library setting of the Lion Theatre (a storefront space located behind the Chicago Theatre), the cast of Drunk Shakespeare moved with adroit wit and physicality throughout the audience seated on benches on either side of the playing area. You are cordially invited to a meeting of The Drunk Shakespeare Society. It takes performers with a sure knowledge of the original story and a firm handle on timing (both in terms of iambics and improv) to not fall off the narrative wagon with a show like this. (The king at my performance stole the show with a proposal-accepted!-post-curtain call.) The other official disrupters are the guests willing to fork over $500 (yikes!) for the special “King” (or “Queen”) package, which gets you a throne, expensive hooch (including a bottle of champagne one performer described as tasting “like what I imagine my mother’s approval feels like”), and the right to interrupt the proceedings and decide if you will “pardon” the night’s drinker or add to their hangover by commanding them to down another shot. The upside to being the designated drunk is that you get to toss monkey wrenches into the performance works from time to time. Thomas Toles as the host kept the proceedings on track while entering scenes in a variety of film genres (action movie, film noir), as commanded by Green. Brooks as Macbeth served up double and triple shots of sexual entendres while bringing in references to everything from Barack and Michelle Obama to The Lion King. ![]() On the night I attended, Courtney Rikki Green tackled Lady M with verve, bringing an astounding amount of emotional nuance to the sleepwalking scene, despite the five shots of whiskey she downed before the 90-minute show (enough to make anyone see Birnam Wood moving-though here the forest is represented by the ensemble waving Little Trees air fresheners). But concerns about liver damage aside, the recently opened Chicago version of this show (created by Scott Griffin and director David Hudson) that’s now in its fifth year in New York brings together a murderers’ row of comedic talent to what is essentially Comedy Central’s Drunk History with a literary twist-served on the rocks, straight up, and with many disgusting variations in between. The actors play multiple parts as the emcee introduces each scene, so follow along as the actions-and actors-get dizzier.Īfter 5 shots of whiskey, the main actor and supporting players manage to hit all the Shakespeare high-notes while transforming time-worn tales and lofty literary language into more updated, relatable, and downright hilarious storytelling.The moral implications of Drunk Shakespeare, in which a performer gets deliberately plastered before attempting a major role in Macbeth, may feel a bit troubling. The narrating emcee and 4 other jovial actors need to keep the starring actor in line as he drinks, nailing monologues in both old English and more modern-day parlance. The atmosphere is relaxed and fun in the U-shaped seating arrangement, and this is definitely not the Macbeth you remember from high school. Guests enter through a locksmith's shop to find a glam cocktail bar and library with over 10,000 books. Your experience begins in an intimate, hidden speakeasy located behind the Chicago Theater. Each night in Chicago, 1 professional actor has at least 5 shots of whiskey and then attempts to perform in a Shakespearean play with 4 other actors. ![]()
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