{"id":26448,"date":"2014-09-19T19:25:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T11:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=26448"},"modified":"2014-09-19T16:30:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T08:30:53","slug":"a-hit-a-very-palpable-hit-all-the-worlds-a-stage-for-shakespeare-in-the-fenway-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/09\/19\/a-hit-a-very-palpable-hit-all-the-worlds-a-stage-for-shakespeare-in-the-fenway-park\/","title":{"rendered":"A hit, a very palpable hit: All the world\u2019s a stage for Shakespeare in the (Fenway) Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Fenway Stadium in Boston. Photo by Werner Kunz<\/a> \/ Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BOSTON\u2014Five centuries after William Shakespeare wrote \u201cUneasy lies the head that wears the crown,\u201d the Boston Red Sox have been deposed as\u00a0World\u00a0Series champions, bouncing from last place to first and again to the cellar in a shift from tragedy to comedy that even the revered playwright would appreciate.<\/p>\n

And so, as they head into yet another winter of their discontent, the Red Sox are turning Fenway Park over to the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company to bring a bit of the Bard of Avon to the former home of Josh and Daniel Bard.<\/p>\n

The curse of \u201cThe Scottish Play\u201d and \u201cThe Curse of the Bambino\u201d will be as one on Friday night when the troupe performs a sort of Best of Bill, featuring 10 classic scenes in the ballpark that has always been more Big Papi than Joseph Papp, more Green Monster than \u201cgreen-ey\u2019d monster,\u201d more Carl Yastrzemski than Henry VIII.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere else would you want to do Shakespeare than in Boston\u2019s most hallowed and treasured ground,\u201d artistic director Steven Maler said. \u201cHe wrote as easily comedy as he did tragedy; the Red Sox seem deeply versed in both.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since John Henry bought the franchise in 2002, the Red Sox have tried to expand Fenway\u2019s portfolio, renovating it to increase capacity and using it to host movie nights and hockey games and Springsteen concerts. The \u201clyric little bandbox\u201d lauded by John Updike will be the first in the major leagues to host a Shakespearean performance, Maler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheater doesn\u2019t belong inside these curtain-draped, plush-seat experiences were you have to pay 100 bucks to walk through the door,\u201d said Maler, whose company usually performs in the Boston Common. \u201cShakespeare was a very populist writer during the day. We\u2019d like to bring that vitality and that roughness back to the work. So it\u2019s a perfect venue for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shall I compare the Red Sox to a Shakespeare play?<\/p>\n

What blood lingers longer: The stain on Lady Macbeth\u2019s hands, or the one on Curt Schilling\u2019s sock? Which was the true Comedy of Errors, the Shakespearean farce or the Buckner\u00a0World\u00a0Series? To pull Pedro, or not to pull Pedro?<\/p>\n

Why was that even a question?<\/p>\n

\u201cComedy, tragedy, history. It\u2019s all-in-one. The most theatrical stories in the most fitting place,\u201d said Kerry O\u2019Malley, who will portray Olivia from \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d on the field where she has sung the national anthem and danced for a Red Sox title. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go overboard but it\u2019s like sacred space for me. It\u2019s my favourite place on earth. I love it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maler said the idea for Shakespeare at Fenway was proposed by then-Mayor Tom Menino a few years ago and warmly received by Red Sox President Larry Lucchino, who said in a\u00a0news\u00a0release to announce the event: \u201cAll the ballpark\u2019s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGlee\u201d and \u201cYes, Dear\u201d actor Mike O\u2019Malley\u2014a Red Sox season ticket-holder\u2014is the headliner, along with his sister Kerry and Neal McDonough (\u201cSuits,\u201d \u201cDesperate Housewives,\u201d \u201cBand of Brothers\u201d). Maler said the scenes were chosen so that the audience will be familiar with them; there will also be songs, such as a number from the Shakespeare-inspired musical \u201cKiss Me, Kate.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 6,000 seats will be available for Friday\u2019s show, with some tickets free to the public and nonprofits and others ranging from $35 to $125. Fair is foul and foul is fair for this production, with the stage set up over the home dugout and facing into the first-base boxes.<\/p>\n

And when Hamlet pours poison in his uncle\u2019s ear, he won\u2019t be far from where Pedro Martinez grabbed Don Zimmer by the ears and threw him to the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is so much cross-over between a major league sporting event and going to the theatre (in Shakespeare\u2019s day): music, people serving food, unsavoury characters hanging around,\u201d said Boston College professor Caroline Bicks, who teaches Shakespeare and blogs about him at\u00a0www.everydayshakespeare.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t have big-time sporting events in Shakespeare\u2019s time,\u201d Bicks said. \u201cIn terms of democratic entertainment experiences, it was probably the most democratic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shakespeare\u2019s Globe Theatre, like Fenway, was open-air, sorting its different classes of customer into Elizabethan luxury suites called Lords Rooms or standing room down in front for a penny. Bicks said it was built outside the city of London to escape the restrictions that were meant to curb the excesses of the day, like prostitution, drinking and the plague. (In fairness to the Red Sox, they have been accused only of two.)<\/p>\n

Bicks said that Shakespeare\u2019s histories, with their rousing soliloquies on national honour, bring to mind the hometown pride of Red Sox Nation. Shakespeare had his Henry VI trilogy; the Red Sox had their own No. 6, Johnny Pesky, who served the team as player, manager and coach in a six-decade career before finally receiving a championship ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cHamlet gets some revenge within three hours,\u201d Maler said. \u201cThat Babe Ruth thing goes on and on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Red Sox sold Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1918\u2014to fund a Broadway play, no less\u2014and didn\u2019t win another championship until 2004. That year, they rallied from a three-game deficit to beat their arch rivals (think: Capulets and Montagues) in a comeback so epically cathartic that it surpassed fiction; one local athlete echoed a common theme when he told the Globe\u2014the Boston newspaper, not the theatre in London\u2014\u201cYou couldn\u2019t write a better script.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Malley guessed that even Shakespeare would agree.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d probably bow down to that story and say, \u2018No, I couldn\u2019t have done that any better,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWhat better playwright to have for this cursed franchise that had such spectacular redemption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shakespeare\u2019s Macbeth is also said to be cursed, a pre-urban legend that discourages actors from speaking the name of the play, except in rehearsal. But the performers do tell each other to \u201cbreak a leg\u201d before a show\u2014something that should never, ever be said to a ballplayer taking the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo broken legs for them. Please, please, please,\u201d O\u2019Malley beseeched. \u201cThis season\u2019s been bad enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOSTON\u2014Five centuries after William Shakespeare wrote \u201cUneasy lies the head that wears the crown,\u201d the Boston Red Sox have been …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art-and-culture","category-entertainment","mauthors-jimmy-golen","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}