When I first started my journey into supporting local theatre I wanted to be open to new experiences and types of theatre. This has served me quite well over the years and I’m still finding ways to experience the stage in fresh and inventive new to me formats. I’d heard of Drunken Shakespeare before but as I don’t drink myself I hadn’t given it much thought. Then the good folks at Mad King invited me to see their drunk production of The Tempest and since they had a Sunday matinee I decided to give it a shot (from church to Drunken Shakespeare is an unusual combination but I am a unique person!) While this experience won’t be for everyone I had a great time and would encourage anyone looking for something fresh and original to give it a shot.

The rules for Drunken Shakespeare are simple. The troupe starts off the performance (in this case The Tempest) with a toast and a drink. Then they perform the first Act with their initial drink and at intermission the audience has the chance to sponsor whatever actors they are enjoying. Each $5 donation means a new drink for the actors. With it being Father’s Day our audience was on the small side so I was frankly quite shocked at how many orders were placed (wanting to just observe I did not place any orders myself.) I can only imagine how many orders there are for a full house which they had on Friday!

Naturally the more inebriated the cast get the more difficult it is to say the Shakespeare but they all do pretty well. This is of course a paired down version of The Tempest with some colorful language added in which suits the non-traditional setting. Like I said, this whole experiment won’t be for everyone but I found it quite refreshing. As much as I love theatre of all kinds sometimes I can feel we as a community can be a little stuffy. I get it we don’t want to be outright disruptive or rude but people that complain about a candy wrapper being opened or grumble at the fidget spinner I sometimes have in the palm of my hand take things too far. This isn’t a library where the audience should be afraid to move or make the tiniest sounds. It is refreshing to go to Drunken Shakespeare and hear people commenting at the actors, smiling and having a great time.

Anyway, the cast at Mad King is all up for the task. I just hope that they don’t have too big of headaches after all that! Carleigh-Jo Naylor grounds the whole thing as Prospera and Coco Berwald and Isacc Martinez-Trinidad were a lot of fun as Miranda and Ferdinand. In the program the director is listed as Madman Madriaga and any of the other technical elements are kept very simple in the black box space at the Gateway. I think it helps that the donations don’t start until Act 2 so the first part of the play is relatively true to the original text and free from most antics (the drunk thing could get old quick if we aren’t enjoying the actual play but they keep it just about right.)

It’s interesting I saw The Tempest the day after seeing Something Rotten. I guess Shakespeare is just on the mind! If this Drunken Shakespeare frivolity sounds like your kind of thing give it a shot. Try something new! It is playing through June 29th and tickets can be purchased here.

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