STAGE REVIEW : Bard-Brain Production Entertains

“Bashing the Bard” at Golden West College might have been subtitled “Saturday Night Live Meets Shakespeare.” Fragments of Shakespearean plays are recast in idioms ranging from Kabuki to Frankenstein. Somehow, most of it seems to work, which just goes to show that you can slice him and dice him and even fricassee him and the Bard by any other name can still taste sweet.

Actually, bashing may be too strong a word. Roasting is more appropriate. One can easily imagine the Bard himself smiling at the thought that some community college theater in Huntington Beach was presenting alternative interpretations of his work (in much the same way that he incorporated stories).

In any case, these 14 vignettes (a 15th, “The Weather With Dr. George,” was listed on the program but for some unannounced reason was not presented) run the gamut from serious to rollicking to odd.

Especially well conceived and acted is “Gothic American--To Be or Not To Be,” in which two elderly women, one in a wheelchair, one in a rocking chair, take turns parrying Hamlet’s speech. Given the setting, the words take on a special poignancy.

Most of the show, though, is funny. “If Kate Were Nora” finds a robed wife folding laundry, ironically proclaiming “thy husband is thy lord. . . . “ while her slob of a husband swills beer and watches a boxing match on television. She gets hers, though: As he falls asleep, she does a striptease, revealing a dress underneath, and then out from behind the door pops a suitor, and off they march into the night.

“Kabuki Shrew” presents Kate-Chung, doing a good Japanese-accented treatment of Shakespearean English. The puns and the wit manage to survive intact. “What a Piece of Work Is Man” makes for a cleverly rendered scene with Frankenstein, his bride and the good doctor.

A little more oblique are the “Sillisoliloquies” during which, at various points throughout the evening, a man dressed in black, moving and speaking like a robot, spurts out great lines from the Bard ad nauseum. His mechanical repetitiousness becomes something of a running joke.

All in all, an entertaining concoction.

‘BASHING THE BARD’

A Golden West College Performing Arts Department presentation at the Golden West College Actor’s Playbox Theater, 15744 Golden West St., Huntington Beach. Directed by Stewart Rogers. With Jessica Bowman, Theresa Ellson, Kelly George, Amy Graham, Kurt Kitasaki, Timothy Morrell, Michael O’Meara, Kathy Owens, Heather Pesh, Mark Putnam, Lylene Spriesterback, and Terry Yoshimura. Tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets: $3, $4. (714) 895-8378.