As audience members waited with anticipation for the performance to begin, The Fullerton College Bronwyn Dodson Theatre transported audience members to Italy where a sequence of revenge takings and tragedies are bound to occur.
The Fullerton College Theatre Arts Department presents “The Revenger’s Tragedy” that opened on Thursday, May 11 at 7 p.m.
The opening-night performance was sold out, but those who couldn’t make it still have three more chances on Friday, May 12 through Sunday, May 14.
“It was fun. It was fast paced and the combat was really great,” said Timothy Espinosa, director of the previous FC performance “American Idiot”. “The costumes were absolutely beautiful and the vision and concept was fully fulfilled.”
A single poisoned drink that was given to a lady at the beginning of the play set off a series of chain reactions of pure chaos and death.
The Bronwyn Dodson Theatre transformed into a Romeo and Juliet type setting with the actors in old-Italian masquerade clothing and extravagant wigs.
Throughout the show, audience members were sucked into the story and kept laughing as the night progressed.
“Everyone in the cast worked super hard to make sure everyone is comfortable doing what they have to and the costumes made a whole new barrier for us,” said Jessica Miller, FC theatre student who played a noble woman in the play. “Once the adrenaline started pumping today, everyone was just going.”
“The Revenger’s Tragedy” was written by Thomas Middleton and holds a plot with four main themes: tragedy, revenge, greed and lust. The play follows a son, Vindice, who is filled with rage and a desire for revenge after his wife was poisoned by the Duke.
Vindice’s sister agrees and helps him on his journey to execute the Duke. Vindice gets into a disguise and begins doing dirty work for the Duke’s son as part of his plan until things get out of hand.
As the story unfolded, the tension slowly increased on stage as more bodies hit the floor, which one would expect in a dark comedy play.
As the description for the play emphasizes in the pamphlet, it really was a Quentin Tarantino meets Guy Richie style of Hamlet without the narcissism.
“They put in a tremendous amount of work the entire semester,” said Michael Mueller, director of “The Revenger’s Tragedy”. “There’s 26 cast members on a very tiny stage with a lot of swords, big ball dresses and outfits and wigs so it fills up pretty quickly, but they managed and really pulled through and I couldn’t be prouder.”
For more information and tickets, you can visit the Fullerton College Theatre Arts Department website here.