Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet): Zach Counsil shines as an agile fencer and a stylish Romeo in this “feninist revisioning” of Shakespeare at the GCTC.

There is no question that Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) is cleverly written. Linguistically attractive in its use of iambic pentameter and very funny in places, it is, in part, an attack on academics, who exploit their top students (a too-common phenomenon in the 1980s.) It also champions feminism, same-sex relationships and gender bending, as it proposes that at least two of Shakespeare’s tragedies were originally intended to be comedies.

Ann-Marie MacDonald, who debuted the lead role of dowdy doctoral candidate Constance Ledbelly 25 years ago, refers to the play as a “feminist revisioning” as she dumps her unlikely heroine at the tragic turning point of Othello and Romeo and Juliet.

The current GCTC production, directed by Ann Hodges, and presented in the frantic style of Ottawa’s Company of Fools, exposes weaknesses of continuity in parts of the “down-the-rabbit-hole” script and in stuffing too many concepts into one package.

The highlights of this production are in its technical aspects — particularly the stylish presentation of the sword fights as directed by John Koensgen and the ambience created by composer by Steven LaFond’s period music.

Zach Counsil as Romeo, the Chorus and others is a delight to watch, especially when he demonstrates his agility as a fencer. He is an actor with an admirable ability to play both to and against type — turning an innocent visage into a villainous look in seconds.

The other cast members, while effective in timing, tend to the caricature rather than character end of the spectrum and this stretches plausibility, already stretched to the limit by the script, just that much too far for my taste.

Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) continues at GCTC to December 15, 2013.

Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet

By Ann-Marie MacDonald

Great Canadian Theatre Company

Director: Ann Hodges

Set and costumes: Brian Smith

Composer/sound: Steven LaFond

Lighting: Jock Munro

Fight director: John Koensgen

Choreographer: Pippa Leslie

Cast:

Constance Ledbelly……………………………….Margo MacDonald

Desdemona et al…………………………………..Sascha Cole

Romeo et al……………………………………….Zach Counsil

Juliet et al…………………………………………Pippa Leslie

Professor Night et al..……………………………Geoff McBride