By Rose Rushe
BEAR with this: an American playwright and actor makes over as his own the drama created by a British actor that is based on the works of the bard of all playwrights, Shakespeare – an actor himself.
The end result is ‘In Acting Shakespeare’, by one James DeVita, coming to Lime Tree Theatre for one night only in a revised programme, Thursday 9 at 8pm.
The New Yorker was working as a fisherman on Long Island when he went to see Ian McKellan’s show, ‘Acting Shakespeare’ in the 1980s. McKellan was touring with his vision of Shakespeare, interspersed with monologues from the greats, ‘Richard 111’, ‘Henry V’, ‘Hamlet’.
“James has kept these soliloquies but the exploration of Shakespeare is his own,” explains co-producer Tim Smith in a call from the States. He and Devita are on the cusp of an Irish itinerary. “He was so moved by Ian McKellan’s work that he quit as fisherman and became an actor”.
Today James Devita is based as director (‘Romeo and Juliet’) and performer with the American Players Theatre in Wisconsin. His own show ‘In Acting Shakespeare’ has been through America and played two years off Broadway.
This month Tim Smith is bringing ‘In Acting Shakespeare’ to Lime Tree Theatre to his former Druid colleague Louise Donlon, co-producer for this 12-venue initiative.
“It’s a lot of fun, quite tender and people laugh a lot. When James Devita started out he was going to do Ian’s show but quickly learned that he had to do his own. He is a charismatic man on stage for these two hours”.
Expect a chair, cane, box and man on set, and key to the whole are lighting and soundscape.
Critical reviews have raved, and why not? Devita was recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship for Fiction and has novels published by HarperCollins.
He’s a playwright too so ‘In Acting Shakespeare’ we sense a telescoping of his own life and the significance to it of others – McKellen, Shakespeare and his damaged men of valour who speak eloquently to us centuries later.
Book on www.limetreetheatre.ie for Thursday, 8pm at the MIC playhouse.
