Dream Up Festival - Tongs and Bones Shakespeare: Tempestuous Amusements, Interludes, Noises and Drollery

Tongs and Bones Shakespeare: Tempestuous Amusements, Interludes, Noises and Drollery
World Premiere

Playwrite: Bob Shuman
Director: Frank Farrell

Collected by his sister, Judith, "Tongs and Bones Shakespeare" includes three one acts culled from the miscellaneous papers and sides, as well as incomplete early drafts, of the great Bard. The manuscripts, found diluted and corrupted, discovered in Brno, Czech Republic after WWII, were only recognized and identified by collectors in 1993, following the end of the Cold War. The story of the uneducated sibling's work, with an itinerant actor who helped her organize and compile the pieces, before her untimely death, due to suicide, in London, has largely been ignored and untold. Bob Shuman's revised versions of the material, directed by Frank Farrell. The fragments highlight characters who do not always play prominent roles in the larger "sister" or well-known companion works, and answer questions such as:  What became of the Little Indian Boy in"A Midsummer's Night Dream"? How did Jacques, in"As You Like It," lose his mirth? And why did Ariel need to be freed, before ever meeting Prospero, in "The Tempest?" among others. The Tongs and Bones texts have been called "grotesque," "comic," and "proto-Brutalist," and highlight compositions from the recordings of current Congolese musicians.

Running Time: 90 Minutes

Location: Community Theater

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