The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Garden of delights?

The Parking Shakespeare theatre company is currently staging a version in Catalan of The Two Gentlemen of Verona in Barcelona’s Parc de l’Estació del Nord. Soooo…. Saturday night we sat ourselves down in the amphitheatre of the park to enjoy a brilliantly outdoor-staged representation. A few of the features that traditionally delight in this comedy—considered by many the Bard’s first—include Shakespearean language play, of course, as well as a cross dressing lover; fast paced witty, often racy dialogue exchanges; Crab the dog; the curative features of the greenwood……. To tickle the funny bone in this version all of those traditional delights have been kept—but of course the text is in Catalan. A somewhat different delight in the adaptation involves speaking some of the dialogue in basic Italian (yes) and wait for it Catalanalian. Which is to say, well, they fake a kind of lingo mixture, making it all even funnier. This altering of Shakespearean language play to a Mediterranean koiné of sorts is appended to the more traditional features. Somehow it all manages to delight as it translates the playfulness of the original Elizabethan English. Crab the dog is both in and out of the action—now you see him, now you don’t, according to the staging.  All in all the play is highly recommendable, great comedy and an intelligent tribute to lyrical yet realistic early Shakespeare. Daily but for Wednesday. From 20 July to 6 August, 2017 at 7 p.m. Entrance free. Here is one useful link >>

http://www.parkingshakespeare.com/