by AMY BARRATT

Hear Ye Hear Ye O Good People of Montreal: Shakespeare-in-the-Park is no more!

Oh never fear, Repercussion Theatre, the company that for 17 years has embodied open-air Shakespeare in the Montreal area and beyond, is still alive and kicking, and still doing Shakespeare. Their product, however, is now to be known as Theatre in the Parks/Théâtre en plein air. That’s because Repercussion has joined forces with Théâtre du nouveau monde, which has its own tradition of producing classical theatre in the parks, to present a travelling summer festival of works by Shakespeare and Molière. Through the collaboration, both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and L’Amour Médecin will break into new neighbourhoods, though perhaps not as many as they would like.

Things start off on Tuesday, July 12, with L’Amour Médecin being performed on the grounds of John Abbott College in Ste-Anne’s, beginning at 7 p.m. Repercussion’s Dream, a remount of last summer’s acclaimed production, set in New France and featuring singing, dancing and elaborate costumes, kicks off its summer tour on July 13 in the same spot.

When the collaboration is working as it should, the two plays are performed on alternating nights in the same place or even one after the other on a weekend afternoon. Too often though, the companies stick to their separate linguistic territory. While it’s true that L’Amour Médecin will play Westmount Park, Cote-St-Luc and TMR will only get the Shakespeare, and the burghers of RDP and Repentigny will only get Molière. However, this is just the first year of the collaboration, and it’s probably asking a bit too much of Repercussion to unite those two solitudes in one fell swoop.

Despite Repercussion’s claim to have “doubled its performances from 2004,” there are actually fewer opportunities to see Dream than there were last year, and both shows together total 41 performances, which when I went to school wasn’t twice as many as 28, the number of scheduled performances in 2004. Mind you, so many of those shows were rained out that the claim, though misleading, may turn out to be literally true.

The production of Dream I saw last summer, directed by Kevin Orr, was delightful. Performed in the round and making use of available light, it restored the real outdoor feel to a Shakespeare in the Park that had become too dependent on technical effects. The young cast brought the characters and the dialogue to life in a way that was accessible to the whole family without being insulting to serious theatregoers.

TNM’s L’Amour Médecin also works to reach a broad audience by incorporating music, dance and mask work into Molière’s classic farce.

Playing God

A new voice is currently being showcased at Geordie Space. Ryan. Costello, Jr is the eccentrically punctuated author of In Jim’s Image, a high-concept piece originally written in a Concordia writing class. God is a planet designer for an interplanetary conglomerate, see? Jim is his wunderkind boss. Jim thinks God has lost his fastball, that he hasn’t come up with anything worthwhile since the Dinosaurs project. Jim gives God one last chance to prove himself, helpfully reminding him of what sells: sex and violence. It runs until July 10: Fri.–Sun. at 8 p.m., Sat.–Sun. at 3 p.m. at Geordie Space (4001 Berri, #103), $5–$8, 996-0941.

Schedules and locations for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and L’Amour Médecin can be found at www.theatreintheparks.ca or by calling 916-PARK

>> Stage Listings