Word: desdemonas
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...first, the play seems interesting enough: The Venice scenes occur on a long, narrow stage, and the scenes in Cyprus take place in the center of a circular audience. In the first scene, which does not appear in the script, three men holding lanterns look at Desdemona (Christina Voros) while she sleeps. The drumbeats that open the play lend a nice, cinematic sound...
...largely instrumental, and they are executed well; Willard, constrained by a stereotyped character of the father, achieves some genuinely dramatic scenes with McCarthy in the mental hospital. Both of Dickey's roles call for broad comedy, which she performs expertly. As she proved in last year's "Goodnight Desdemona," Dickey has a knack for zaniness, and she is funny almost every time she's on stage. Popo Martin, the girl in the hospital, is an irritating caricature, but Dickey does all that can be done with...
...course, everyone gets the chance to learn some life lessons: for example, that real life is more complex than a Shakespeare play. The same cannot be said for Goodnight Desdemona, whose sensibility and pacing are exactly those of a sitcom...
...real stars of the evening are Andrew Barth, as Iago and Romeo, and Stephanie Smith as Mercutio and Desdemona. It is tempting to imagine them as Viola and Malvolio or Beatrice and Benedick in some future HRDC production. Barth is wonderfully vicious as Iago, and his Romeo, while predictably over-the-top, retains more grace and wit than the buffoonish comedy demands Smith's comic zeal and exuberance make her the focus of every scene she is in; her Mercutio is delightful, and her Desdemona is as perfect a performance of that sadly banal role as could be imagined...
...impossible, then, to recommend that one stay away from Good night Desdemona; there is too much good acting to be missed. At the same time, the idiocy of the play is grating, and at two and a half hours, it is distinctly too long. The only thing to do, perhaps, is to see the play, savor the bits of real Shakespeare, and dream of greater things to come...