Media Park is the place to be for this year’s charming Actors’ Gang Shakespeare mash-up, Much Ado About Pooh, the annual summer show. Adapted by Rynn Vogel and directed by Adam J. Jefferis, this play takes Shakespeare’s often-produced ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ and weaves it through A. A. Milne’s Hundred Acre Wood, with Christopher Robin and his friends Pooh, Rabbit, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore and the rest. Trading the motif of romance for the childhood cement of friendship, Vogel and Jefferis do a superb job of bringing it all in at kid’s eye level. The laughs are loud, the booing and hissing at villains is heartfelt, and the ending is (spoiler alert) happily ever after.
Children are always a great audience; if they love it, they are completely focused. If it doesn’t work, they never hesitate to let you know. Culver City’s toddlers, preschoolers and grade school crowd all stayed rapt, on the very edge of their picnic blankets, following along as the action progressed.
As a tribute to the late Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman) there was a word that required everyone to MAKE AS MUCH NOISE as they could – the audience never once missed the cue.
The cast does a brilliant job of balancing the Shakespearian dialogue with the recognizable character traits – Tigger’s bounce, Piglet’s stutter – and the enchanting costumes balanced between the two worlds as well.
This long standing tradition of free theater in Culver City Media Park, adjacent to the Ivy Substation is only playing for two more weekends; August 19 & 20, and August 26 & 27.
To register for the event, go to theactorsgang.com/
Photo by Ashley Randall
Judith Martin-Straw
