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Kafka’s Monkey By David Cote To say that humans are descended from apes is, taking the phrase literally, to imply that we have fallen from a higher state. In gaining speech, bigger brains and a will to shape the world, we’ve lost our purer, natural selves. This essentially Romantic notion gets a harsh, modernist spin…Read More »

“LONDON — On a rainy afternoon, Kathryn Hunter rises from a table in an upstairs rehearsal room at the Young Vic Theater and begins an extraordinary transformation. Her knees bend and her pelvis lowers. Her toes twist inward and her elbows out. Her arms seem somehow to lengthen and her chest broadens. Her brow furrows and…Read More »

“CAKE has been preparing to play Benedick in William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing since he was 9 years old. He even earned trophies for his performance. ‘I would compete against other snotty nosed young kids for trophies doing speeches of Shakespeare,’ says Cake, chatting before an evening performance at the Duke Theater, where Theatre…Read More »

By Scott Brown “Mad Men’s (and Sons of Anarchy’s) Maggie Siff and Brideshead Revisited’s Jonathan Cake joust delightfully in a mostly solid, sweetly simple, gently cheering Much Ado About Nothing from director Arin Arbus and Theater for a New Audience. Siff follows up (but doesn’t repeat) her take-no-shit Kate from last year’s Taming of the Shrew — and meets her goofball…Read More »

“The director Arin Arbus and her excellent players in the Theatre for a New Audience present a bold, bifurcated version of the Shakespeare comedy. Before intermission, the show, stuffed as it is with nonstop banter and wordplay, is wonderfully airy and nimble. But in the second half, the mood is palpably altered, as the consequences…Read More »

“Sigh no more, ladies (and gents), sigh no more. Instead, you should rejoice—and then nip out tobuy tickets from Theatre for a New Audience. In a masterstroke, Arin Arbus’s frequently charming production of Much Ado About Nothing has cast Jonathan Cake as Benedick, and his agile, gleeful performance drives out any possibility—any thought at all—of woe. Deceptions…Read More »

The New York Shakespeare Exchange (NYSX) is a New York-based theatre organization that combines Shakespearean text with contemporary themes and urban settings.  They offer a variety of programs that are not only accessible but also a lot of fun.  One of these programs, “The Sonnet Project,” is ambitious theatre venture that involves film and theatre…Read More »

NEW YORK (AP) — William Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing” benefits from a lighthearted approach and an evenly-matched pair of verbal jousters to conduct a battle of the sexes. An accomplished, zestful production by Theatre for a New Audience that opened Sunday at The Duke on 42nd Street contains all that and more. Directed…Read More »

“There are occasions when the title of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” seems all too apposite. Such is the unhappy case with theTheater for a New Audience production that opened on Sunday night at the Duke on 42nd Street, spreading mirth only sporadically, thanks primarily to a stylish performance by the British actor Jonathan Cake as…Read More »