High-Speed Shakespeare Visits Southampton
If you think eating 70 hot dogs in 10 minutes is difficult, imagine performing all 37 of William Shakespeare’s plays in 90 minutes. Ian Harkins, Shannon Harris, and Rafe Terrizzi will attempt the seemingly impossible feat not once but 10 times starting Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Southampton Cultural Center.
“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” — okay, there are a few shortcuts, and you can’t abridge a hot dog — is full of physical comedy, fast and furious entrances and exits, popular and local references, costume and character changes, all at a madcap pace.
The play is presented by Purpled Pheasant Productions, a new theater company dedicated to bringing high-caliber professional productions to the East End in partnership with the cultural center. Two of the founding partners are East End residents, Mr. Harkins in Southampton, Mr. Terrizzi in East Hampton.
All three performers are Equity actors with extensive theatrical experience and a particular penchant for the Bard. Mr. Harkins has performed on stages in London and the United States with such luminaries as Patrick Stewart, Alan Rickman, Mark Rylance, and Emma Watson. Ms. Harris’s theater credits range from “The Winter’s Tale” and “Romeo and Juliet” to Ntozake Shange’s “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.” Mr. Terrizzi’s film work includes “Howl,” “A Good Marriage,” and “Back to the Front.”
Performances will take place Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m. Tickets are $30 for adults, $28 for senior citizens, $22 for those 18 and under and students. A benefit party complete with minstrels, troubadours, wizards, jesters, farm animals, a silent auction, and an Elizabethan feast will follow Saturday’s performance at 9 at the Southampton Inn. The ticket price, $250, includes admission to any available performance.
An appropriate prelude to Saturday’s performance will take place at the center at 5 p.m. when “Summer Roses VI: Shakespeare’s Musical Legacy” will be performed by Junko Ohtsu, a violinist, Sarah Moulton Faux, a soprano, and Michael Fennelly, a pianist. The concert will include excerpts from Shakespeare’s writings performed by Mr. Harkins, Ms. Harris, and Mr. Terrizzi. Tickets are $40, free for children under 14.