Just in time for the Halloween season, Hudson Shakespeare Company brings to life a lesser known (although no less enjoyable) Elizabethan drama called “The Spanish Tragedy”. The show is being directed by Noelle Fair with fight direction by Conor Mullen, Callan Suozzi-Rearic, and Madeleine Emerick and featuring Evan Brodsky, Jon Ciccarelli, Brian Heuer, Olivia Lodge, Juan Pablo Mendive, Brett Molik, Jeffrey Robb, and Anne M. Whitaker.
Admission to all outdoor and indoor shows are free and will be performing at the following locations. Recommended for outdoor showings to bring a lawn chair as seating is limited.
Perfrormances will be Thursday, Oct. 11, @ 6:30 p.m., Hoboken Public Library, 500 Park Avenue, Hoboken; Sunday Oct. 14 @ 2 p.m., Hamilton Park, Jersey City; and Tuesday, Oct. 16 @ 7p.m., Weehawken Free Public Library, 49 Hauxhurst Avenue, Weehawken.
“The Spanish Tragedy” is an Elizabethan drama written by Thomas Kyd sometime between 1582 and 1592. Later versions of the play have largely included additional scenes and bits of dialogue which have been attributed to William Shakespeare.
“The Spanish Tragedy” was hugely popular in its day and even was responsible for establishing a new type of drama called the revenge tragedy. It’s plot contains several violent murders and includes, as one of its characters, a personification of the spirit of Revenge.
The play was often copied or referred to in other works of the time period. Many of its elements are apparent in Shakespeare’s other works such as “Hamlet” and “Titus Andronicus.” Many of “The Spanish Tragedy” elements such as a play within a play to trap a murderer, a ghost intent on vengeance, and a man who goes mad after his son is murdered, appear in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
Now in its 27th year, Hudson Shakespeare Company has performed a companion piece to “Midsummer” called “Two Noble Kinsmen” (2007), Shakespeare’s “lost play” “Cardenio” (2012), a Jacobean tragicomedy called “The Arden of Faversham” (2014), and a history play called “Edward III” (2015).
These are plays that have been attributed to the collection of works known as the ‘Shakespeare Apocrypha’. “These are plays that scholars have attributed some part of the play to Shakespeare’s writing,” says director Noelle Fair. ”Shakespeare may or may not have contributed to these plays. There’s no way to know for sure. However, scholars can use computer studies called stylometry to find quirks unique to Shakespeare to make a pretty good determination. In this case, it looks like he contributed a few additional scenes after the first original production.”
Hudson Shakespeare recommends that “The Spanish Tragedy” is rated PG-13 for violence performed on stage and may not be appropriate for children under 13.
