C.D. plays the lead in the Shakespeare-adapted short, "Pericles," which ends Sunday

Billed as “An Evening with Compact Shakespeare,” the latest performance by the Idyllwild Arts Theater Department, features the well-told tale of star-crossed lovers,”Romeo & Juliet,” and “Pericles,” about the spellbinding nautical adventures of the Prince of Tyre.

The third and final show will be held on Sunday, April 25, at 2 p.m. at the IAF Theater.

In the playbill, director Abbie Bosworth sums it up: “The versions you are about to see retain almost all of the original language of the full-length plays, but are presented in a style that will appeal to a younger audience.”

It worked for senior Dance students, Adrianna and Christy, who had seen the Shakespeare show Saturday night.

“You’ve got to see it!” exclaimed Adrianna. “There are some parts that are really funny.”

Peter, a Visual Arts student, was looking forward to seeing the show Sunday. Initially, he was concerned about understanding the language of Shakespeare.

“They say it’s got a modern twist, and it’s easy to understand,” Peter said.

However, not all of the students were expecting to like the modern take on Shakespeare.

Will, a senior Dance student (and former Theater major) shook his head.

“I’m a purist when it comes to Shakespeare,” Will said. “And you shouldn’t mess with it by putting it into a modern setting. Especially with ‘Pericles.’ It just won’t work.”

Nevertheless, Will plans to attend Sunday’s show, and try and keep an open mind.

Director Abbie Bosworth expects to win over all the skeptics.

“We often use direct address storytelling, and reference a fairy tale to portray our various villians, heroes and loveable rogues,” Abbie wrote in the playbill. “We have included music, and as many swashbuckling high jinks as possible, not to mention just a little bit of kissing.”

The cast for “Romeo & Juliet,” and “Pericles” are the same, but interchangeable. For example, Tuli, who plays the female lead in “Romeo & Juliet,” is a (male) pirate in “Pericles.” Perhaps the gender role change is fitting for Shakespeare. In his day, male actors also played female roles.

Dylan (right) is used to playing romantic leads. He plays Romeo in Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet"

The rest of the Shakespeare cast includes: C.D., Dylan, Chase, Jessie, Ryutaro, Dakota, Zen, Gabrielle, Michell, Lewis, Samantha, Tierra, Cynthia and Gemini.

Cynthia, who sings in the chorus, also gets to play the flute.

“I played classical flute for six years before coming here,” Cynthia said.

The director admitted to drawing inspiration from the cast.

“I had a huge amount of fun working with this cast, who has brilliant ideas for the silly bits, and plenty of good ideas for the serious ones too,” she wrote.

The third and final show of”Romeo & Juliet” and “Pericles” will be presented this Sunday, April 25, at 2 p.m. at the IAF Theater (in the Bowman Building) on the Idyllwild Arts campus. All shows are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.idyllwildarts.org.

Copyright 2011 Idyllwild Me. All rights reserved.

Published on: Apr 23, 2011 @ 23:42