Naked Shakespeare at Wine Bar

Don't let the "naked" trip you up - it's not that kind of production.

Acorn Productions' Naked Shakespeare is minimalist in its performance. That means no period-appropriate costumes (but yes, the actors are dressed), no set (other than the preexisting backdrop of the bar) and no professional lighting (as evidenced by my poorly lit amateur photos). It's all about the poetry.

That was all the information I had going in.

The production started at 8:00 p.m., but my coworker Kate and I headed over a little early in order to cherry-pick our seats (and to get a head-start on the wine). The warm spell had stepped in a few days earlier - as evidenced by the slush piles on Wharf Street and the over-heated second-floor Wine Bar. I'll recuse an unstoppable heating system and not the bar owners - I don't recall being that uncomfortable during previous excursions there.

Kate and I both ordered glasses of Wild Pig (solely because it was called Wild Pig - that's what uneducated wine drinkers do) and found a couch by the bar to settle into.

After just a sip or two of the WP, one of the Acorn Productions actors came along to encourage us to get in on the action with a bit of audience participation. He handed Kate a slip of paper and asked her - when it was time - to introduce the next actor by reading what was written on the slip. Being bolder than I, she was all for it - and even tested a range of dramatic accents in an effort to give her lines the most "oomph." Then, a few minutes after 8:00, a man stood up from amongst the wine glass-tipping audience and began to speak. His hearty voice caused the rumble of scattered conversations to quiet, and the Naked Shakespeare began.

An audience member stood to read her slip of paper - and being at the other end of the room made her slightly hard to hear. But her lines prompted an actor (who had been inconspicuously sitting at the bar) to stand and recite - and these Acorn folks know how to make their voices carry.

Everyone in the room - which was by now without a seat to spare - turned in their chairs or craned their necks to face the speaker. He spoke with the ease and confidence of a seasoned actor, turning to people seated next to him, clutching his glass and blending this solo performance into the Wine Bar scene.

His lines reaching their conclusion, he resumed his seat at the bar, turned his back to the audience and we all began to clap.

When the applause subsided, a second audience member stood to read her introductory line. And so it went. There were approximately 6 actors reciting lines from an array of Shakespeare's plays - each doing one or two before the evening was out.

And Kate - who opted to read sans accent - was even complimented for her reading of the line: "No, really, Iago, take my money if it helps your revenge of Othello and Cassio."

Not surprisingly, the performances were impressive. While Naked Shakespeare features a rotating cast of actors, I'm willing to bet that all of them are as equally skilled as those we saw.

And there's no need to be proficient in the Shakespeare's work to appreciate this production - Naked Shakespeare is good old fashioned entertainment in it's own right. It's not high-brow or overblown, but offers just enough of the Bard's theatrics to make any audience member feel cultured. And hey, did I mention it's free? (Though donations are welcome - and well-deserved.)