Went to the Fireman’s Kitchen last night to see its penultimate presentation of the Hickory Community Theatre’s “The Complete Works of Shakespeare – Abridged”. Well, it was truly magnificent? But I had the feeling that Shakespeare would have loved it. I think he would be right up there on the stage piling absurdities and mis-quotes on top of all of the other actors. He would have sent a messenger off to the Olde Hickory Tap Room, just around the corner or perhaps right around the other corner to “The Crescent Moon”, to supply ale for the entire congregation, and would have probably brought his own bottle of Sack along with him.
We were generally a demure group. We did laugh at the appropriate points (most of them) and we giggled at the off-color references, and enjoyed as many of the absurdities that we could recognize. And we even hung in with the endless demonstrations of various ways to do Hamlet quicker and quicker, even finishing one entire rendition off in 30 seconds, and we then watched as they repeated THAT one backwards, ending at the beginning.
It was a good evening, back in the Fireman’s Kitchen, back with old friends and new friends and a fine evening of entertainment.
We also found out that the Hickory Community Theatre celebrated its 50th anniversary by becoming one of 6 community theaters nationwide to produce a winning play of a new playwriting competition. Over 200 plays have been submitted to the competition. Once the top plays have been chosen, HCT will select which one they would like to produce. the playwright will journey here, workshop the show, and be on hand for the opening night festivities. Not bad for a town with 5 community theaters!
