When you think about Shakespeare, BDSM may not immediately spring to mind. But 50 Shades of Shakespeare, a new production from Chicago’s (Re)Discover Theater that will be in St. Louis this weekend, is highlighting the more raucous side of the bard.
“Shakespeare wrote his plays for the everyday person,” says Janet Howe, director of 50 Shades of Shakespeare. “They wanted something bawdy and fun and loud and boisterous. His plays are supposed to be a great adventurous romp with poignant moments as well.”
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50 Shades of Shakespeare stages 12 of Shakespeare’s most risqué scenes—sometimes taking them a bit farther than the Bard would have, like with the BDSM scene in the show. There are four actors, two men and two women, and the audience picks who will play which roles.
“That’s been the exciting foothold of what’s made this show unique,” says Howe. “You often get nontraditional gender roles and nontraditional couples and there’s gender fluidity built into the show.”
There’s also a drinking game built into the play, which will be staged at The Crack Fox and Shameless Grounds, and audience participation is critical.
“Part of our mission is the break down the pretension around theater,” Howe says. “That’s why we like doing this show in a bar, it takes all the tension away. And it shows people hey, Shakespeare doesn’t have to be pretentious and boring. It can be fun, and it is fun.”
Bringing the show to St. Louis is Cocktails and Curtain Calls, a local boundary-breaking theater group that is has also staged plays in bars or as pub crawls. Artistic director Nick Henderson calls it “guerilla style” theater. But bringing theater to a pub and into different neighborhoods allows Cocktails and Curtain Calls to attract a wider audience. Like (Re)Discover, Henderson and his team are also trying to make theater more approachable.
“The biggest problem that I run into is when I tell people my background is in classical texts. They get scared, and don’t think it’s an approachable art form,” Henderson says. “That’s never been my experience. Classical texts are approachable and still speak to us in ways that matter.”
In order to expand the St. Louis theater scene, Henderson is launching a program called Fourth Wall Down, that will bring in acts from around the region (anyone within a 6-hour drive of St. Louis) to perform in nontraditional theater spaces around town. He also will send St. Louis theater companies out to other cities to do the same thing.
50 Shades of Shakespeare is the first show he’s brought in and is perfect for this guerilla style.
“As a theater artist, we’re always asking how can we make the live-ness of this experience essential?” Howe says. “How do you take that energy and excitement and bring it into the show? Because if the audience is not interacting with the performers and a vital part of the show, everyone might as well just stay in and watch Netflix.”
You may be able to see 50 Shades of some garbage online, but to see a gender-bending version of the Bard’s friskiest scenes, you’re going to have to get off the couch.
50 Shades of Shakespeare will run this Friday and Saturday March 10 & 11. On March 10 catch it at The Crack Fox at 8 or 10 p.m. On March 11 catch it at Shameless Grounds at 7 & 9 p.m. Tickets are $15. For more information visit https://www.cocktailsandcurtaincalls.com/future-productions or Facebook.
