Oh, Shakespeare!

By E.G. Porciuncula
Inquirer News Service

Editor's Note: Published on page C4 of the January 10, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


REPERTORY Philippines is shaking up Shakespeare in its first offering for 2005, 'Oh Romeo,' a farce with music by Ephraim Kishon.
The play has Joy Virata as director and an all-star cast: Pinky Amador, Michael Williams and Miguel Faustmann.
'It's a great combination of high literature and low comedy,' says Virata, 'a mix of the author's dialogue in modern language and lingo, and lines in the Shakespearean style.'
The proof of the spoof is this premise: What happens if Shakespeare's Romeo (Williams) and Juliet (Amador) didn't die, but instead lived through a modern-day type of marriage with all its ups and downs? Shakespeare (Faustmann) himself will help solve this riotous riddle."