On Monday, Ottawa's A Company of Fools launches Tempest in a Teapot -- its hilarious take on Shakespeare's romantic comedy The Tempest -- at its website (fools.ca) and on Facebook. It will be the first of 12 weekly webisodes, with each show archived for future viewing (a trailer is already online).
In case you missed the original production at the NAC's Fourth Stage last fall, the play, part spoof and part tribute to Shakespeare, includes a show-stopping song about abstinence, ample clowning, and, among its props, paper dolls. The often-ignored racism that colours his plays also gets a full airing. Somehow, the Fools manage to include enough of the original storyline that neither The Tempest nor Shakespeare's brilliance are ever entirely lost.
"We'd been kicking around the idea of shooting for television for a while, but it always seemed like a really big thing to do with a pilot and all the episodes," says the Fools' artistic director Scott Florence, who also directed the show. "And an indie film was out of range for cost."
So when a mutual friend who'd seen the stage play suggested that Florence meet with Ottawa webcaster Kevin Burton, owner of Nat Cap Production, Florence jumped at the chance.
Original cast members Margo MacDonald, Al Connors and Emmanuelle Zeesman appear in the Internet version, which was filmed in one marathon day late last year at the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama.
Florence says the Fools chose the webisode format with its classic cliffhanger appeal because "most Internet users don't want to sit in front of a screen for 11/2 hours. People want short, quick hits on the Internet."
Running the play on the Web will, Florence hopes, give the 18-year-old troupe exposure across the country as well as footage for promotional packages. It's also a chance to test drive a relatively unknown concept -- presenting a play in episodes on the Internet -- for a company that's never eschewed risk-taking including mounting a show in a van.
"We don't have a lot of money or time," says Florence, "and when you're creating shows, you want them to have a longer life than just a couple of weeks."
Patrick Langston, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Saturday, September 20, 2008
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
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