Benedick (T. Ryder Smith) and Beatrice (Rebecca Watson)
There are those who accuse fans of The Bard for constantly making much ado about William Shakespeare’s works, but those folks are missing out, especially when the playwright delves into comedy.
Case in point: Pioneer Theatre Company’s new production of Much Ado About Nothing, one of Shakespeare’s most recognizable, oft-performed comedies. Even if you’re intimately familiar with Much Ado, there is plenty to love in this creative adaptation by director Matt August, from several excellent performances and new twists on old dialogue, to the stunning set design and costumes.
August sets the tale in the late Middle Ages, and the music by composer Scott Killian and ornate costumes by Elizabeth Caitlin Ward–a veteran of projects around the globe, including the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics–immediately evoke the era. A striking, sparse set of metal, candles and flowing fabrics makes for an engaging space for characters adorned in armor, fur and gauzy robes to tell their story.
The story remains a winning one–all the more so in the capable hands of August’s case. Benedick (T. Ryder Smith) and Beatrice (Rebecca Watson) jab and jive through numerous bouts of verbal sparring as the two jaded non-romantics set up as juxtaposition to the passionate youngsters Claudio (Terrell Donnell Sledge) and Hero (Ashley Wickett). Smith and Watson often steal the scene whenever they are on stage, delivering confident performances. Sledge was a bit more reticent in running through Shakespeare’s dialogue, but Wickett picked up the slack in that coupling.
Among the other noteworthy performances are John Ahlin as Leonato, Hero’s father, David Manis as Don Pedro, the returning military commander who enjoys a bit of fun at Benedick’s expense, and Max Robinson as Dogberry, the town constable who in this version leads a band of children.
The mix of stinging one-liners, mistaken identities and comedic comeuppances, while familiar, come through as fresh in Pioneer’s production. August’s gamble on placing his Much Ado in the Middle Ages pays off. For both audience and performers, the twist makes the show feel new–no easy task with such well-worn source material.
Much Ado About Nothing runs Mondays through Saturdays until March 8. For showtimes, tickets and more information, visit the Pioneer Theatre Company website. Photos by Alexander Weisman, courtesy of Pioneer Theatre Company.
EL TEN ELEVEN, THE URBAN LOUNGE, Saturday, 9 p.m., $14
It’s tough to come up with a label worthy of the mighty sound conjured by two-piece band El Ten Eleven. Some call their brand on intrumental rock “ambient,” others call it “post-rock,” some simply call it “experimental.” That’s probably the most accurate term, given the array of sounds that the bassist/guitarist Kristian Dunn and drummer Tim Fogarty are able to create live on stage, without any laptops, click tracks or additional musicians necessary. If you’ve never seen them, you’ll be shocked it’s only two dudes on stage. The band’s latest release is an EP called For emily, and the title track is dedicated to a friend who died last year. Other new songs are similarly dedicated to people from the duo’s lives, and the set is a nice addition to an impressive catalog that is now five full-length albums deep. Bronze Whale opens the show.
Just when you think Utah County might actually be a part of Western Civilization, you read a story like this:
Last weekend, Judy Cox was shocked to see mildly racy T-shirts from the Visual by Van Styles line, displayed in the PacSun store window at University Mall in Orem. She determined they were “pornographic” and asked they be taken down—which didn’t happen.
“This is hard to police because of freedom of speech,” mall manager Rob Kallas, told the Provo Daily Herald.
So, Cox bought all the T-shirts at $27.50 a pop—a total of $567. That’ll teach ’em.
And, yes, the T-shirts shown here are representative of the steamiest.
Cox says she considered destroying them, but instead, “I’ll let their corporate office figure out what to do with them when I return them on day 59 of a 60-day return policy.” (Does anyone want to predict a 20 percent-off sale on certified “infamous porn shirts”? Think what they’ll sell for on Ebay!).
Reports the Daily Herald: “Cox said she was so concerned about the promotion and the “pornographic” material that she has contacted two national organizations, Women for Decency and One Million Moms. Both organizations have had success in stopping the spread of indecent material and subject matter on TV, in movies and in print media.”
DIFFERENT=AMAZING, ROSE WAGNER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, Saturday, Feb. 22, Noon, Free
When it comes to taking an anti-bullying message to Utah school kids via live theater, Plan-B Theatre Company is a natural fit. The company specializes in Utah-born and bred stories, and for this show that will tour 30 elementary schools over the next month or so, playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett drew on real bullying stories submitted by students at SLC’s Mountain View Elementary School, as well as his own childhood experiences from the playground, to create a two-person show full of anti-bullying scenes and monologues that will be delivered by actors Tyson Baker and Latoya Rhodes. Directed by Jerry Rapier, the 45-minute production will mostly be seen in schools in Salt Lake and Davis Counties, but it also includes free public performances in Salt Lake City this weekend, and at Ogden’s Good Theatre Company, 260 25th St., on March 1 at noon and March 3 at 7 p.m. While the public performances are free, they do require a ticket–available through the Plan-B website.
On a freezing desert morning three years ago, I finally I learned what Nancy Holt’s earth sculpture Sun Tunnels is about.
A motley gang of about 30 shivering people, many wrapped in blankets, were waiting for the summer Solstice sunrise. Let’s face it, four sections of concrete culvert scattered in the desert near the ghost town of Lucin is not all that impressive—let alone meaningful, when a freezing wind is whipping across the desert. Small wonder few Utahns have experienced it.
The group that dawn included a young family who had changed their surname to Gaia and a retired “desert rat” from Nevada. We watched in suspense as the daylight climbed a ridge behind us while the sun itself hid behind a mountain range to the east. Then suddenly the sun popped out and crawled atop a nipple-shaped peak. Its warming light streamed perfectly through the center of Holt’s tunnels. Just as it does, without fail, twice every year.
The bloody sky and solar disc were staggeringly beautiful, but that was the least of it. Revealed to the crowd was the clockwork intricacy of the cosmos. That the whirling stars, moon and sun foretell the seasons and set the pace of life is something our ancestors understood intimately, but it’s something we’ve mostly forgotten—we’ve been separated from it by technology, artificial light and vinyl siding.
Nancy Holt died last week, she was 75. It’s unfortunate that Holt is best known as the wife of Robert Smithson who created the Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake 40 miles south of her Sun Tunnels. (Smithson was killed in a plane crash in 1973 about the time Holt began Sun Tunnels.) Holt’s land art is equal her husband’s—and both are found in northern Utah. Sun Tunnels and Spiral Jetty require a serious journey to experience and both bring humans back, again and again, (it’s that spiral thing) into alignment with with nature and the awe-inspiring land around us.
Here’s what the Sun Tunnels look like to Google Map‘s eye in the sky.
Prepare for your trip to the Sun Tunnels by spending an afternoon at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts’ new exhibit that creatively explores the land that surrounds us. It includes Great Salt Lake Landscan by the Center for Land Use Interpretation and a new take on Smithson’s creativity by British artist Tacita Dean. The shows end May 4.
One of the most striking things about seeing the Pixies in 2014 is how vital and urgent the band’s old songs remain nearly three decades after their original release. And now that they’ve unleashed new music over the past few months that fits easily alongside the classics, there’s no reason to think the Pixies can’t find a new audience that will revere them as much as the old fans from the ’80s do.
Saturday night’s show at The Great Saltair was full of those older fans, to be sure, but there were also a surprising number of attendees who likely weren’t born when the Pixies released their last proper album, Trompe Le Monde, in 1991. (As I waited in line at Will Call to grab my tickets, three girls around 15 or 16 were trying to remember the words to “Monkey Gone to Heaven”–clearly they’ve been raised right.)
All on hand were treated to a blast through more than two dozen songs touching on all the band’s albums, including several of the new tunes recently released on EP1 and EP2. Black Francis’ voice–his growls, yelps, shouts and screams–remains one of the more singular sounds of any rock band. Combined with Joey Santiago’s surf-y guitar squalls, David Lovering’s creative drum work and touring bassist Paz Lenchantin’s driving playing, that voice led the Pixies through a set that turned the Saltair into a swarming hive of happy fans.
The opening blast of songs was a stunning run through some old favorites, including “Bone Machine,” “Wave of Mutilation,” “UMass,” the band’s cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Head On,” and “Monkey Gone to Heaven.” It was a thrilling way to get the evening started on the Pixies’ first visit to Salt Lake City since their original reunion tour a decade ago. It also immediately built up some good will for the new songs that many in attendance probably aren’t familiar with yet, although that could change given how great some of the new songs worked during the show.
“Magdalena” was one of the new songs to make an early appearance, and its insistent hooks made it one of the best performances of the night, especially of the new material. “Gouge Away” and “Planet of Sound” bookended another new one, “What Goes Boom,” while the driving new “Blue Eyed Hexe” led into “Crackity Jones” from 1989’s Doolittle.
As the show moved into its second half, older songs dominated. “Caribou” was brilliant, “Here Comes Your Man” led into a killer “La La Love You.” “Nimrod’s Son,” “Velouria,” “Broken Face” and “Debaser” were all excellent. Encores that included the iconic “Where Is My Mind?” and another strong performance of a new song, “Greens and Blues,” put a capper on a brilliant show overall.
There was little in the way of between-song banter from Black Francis; rather, he and the band let the music do all the work, along with a pretty stellar light show, and sound that was better than I expected for the warehouse venue by the Great Salt Lake. Surely some were bummed the band didn’t play its ode to the Saltair, “Palace of the Brine,” but that’s a pretty minor quibble. And while the bubbly on-stage presence of long-time bassist Kim Deal is missed, Lenchantin had no problem filling her spot vocally or on bass. If making her a full-time member of the band is an option, it’s one Francis, Santiago and Lovering should consider.
No matter what the future, Saturday’s gig sure seemed to show that the band has a bright one if it wants to continue. Black Francis has said he’s finished as a solo artist, preferring to work with the Pixies from here on out. Let’s hope that’s true. We can all use more shows like the one they delivered Saturday night.
Daniel Nailen 