What I liked
The meta “play within a play within a play” was really neat. I liked the immersive aspect in the beginning where you meet the characters in the bar before the “performance” starts, so you really get a sense of their personalities and relationship dynamics. I loved the fun tone of the whole experience, and the chaos and hijinks of the characters in the “meta-play”. And again, the general spirited intonation that each actor brought to their character playing a Shakespeare character was really really fun – some of the characters were super into it, and some not. It felt really authentic.
What I didn't like
We didn’t have drinks in hand when the “meta play” started so we felt bad that we couldn’t drink whenever the cast instructed us to! It might be helpful to somehow suggest to the audience that everyone have a drink in hand when they move into the main performance area. My first instinct would be to finish my drink before going into the performance area for fear of it getting in the way somehow.
My overall impression
I thought the show was really fun and clever. I’m not a Shakespeare buff, but I still got the gist of the parody and thoroughly enjoyed the energy and emotion that this group of actors brought to the performance. I love this group of actors in general, and seeing them in a show with a primarily comedic tone was new but very cool!
