“MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1999) Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company makes the most of Shakespeare’s silly romantic comedy under Natsuko Ohama and Lisa Wolpe’s direction. Their take on the language is particularly lucid, so that not only do the actors understand and relish their lines, the audience does too…Will Beatrice and Benedick ever get together? The fun is in the journey, provided by a consistently vibrant and polished cast…That all the roles are played by women is merely momentarily disconcerting, and the ethnic variety only adds to the interest. What does it matter, after all, when they are all so good.
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“LAWSC does a noble job of bringing Shakespeare into the mainstream. Much Ado About Nothing is no exception. A bevy of superb actors, some familiar, some not so, have once again tackled a play that isn’t widely known…These marvelous women have turned out a sharp, funny, farce comedy with the creative dexterity that has become their trademark. This is elegant fare…performances are on a par with the best Shakespearean productions anywhere…You go, girls.
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“Sure, Gwynneth Paltrow may have won an Oscar this year for her genderswapping role in “Shakespeare in Love”, but she’s got nothing on the ladies of the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company who’ve been wearing the corsets – and the trousers – since 1993. LAWSC’s latest
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production showcases the inimitable talents of an all-female ensemble cast, and an ethnic diversity rarely seen in any other mainstream theater company and certainly unseen in traditional Shakespearean productions, where in the Bard’s day white men assumed even the female roles.
“A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (1998) LAWSC offers a superlative production of the Bard’s classic… Wolpe’s comedic staging is impeccable
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“TWELFTH NIGHT (2000) LAWSC With the huge John Anson Ford Amphitheater to play in, the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company has great fun with one of the Bard’s most fanciful comedies. The entire cast makes much of the fact they are all women, a conceit that broadens the comedy and sharpens the jokes.
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“DARKLY TERRIFYING!!! Wolpe confirms that she is simply one of the best interpreters of the Bard out there! –
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“Lisa Wolpe sets immediate high standards with a masterful performance of Leontes, the Sicilian monarch driven by sudden jealous rage to destroy his loving wife (Kimberleigh Aarn). Unlike Othello, Leontes is not the victim of an evildoer’s manipulation, but rather overtaken by some inner, all-consuming darkness. As in many other portrayals, the reasons remain opaque, but Wolpe makes utterly credible both the king’s cruelty and his subsequent remorse once the veil of madness has lifted.
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“THE WINTER’S TALE (2001) As vengeful King Leontes, Lisa Wolpe has a startling grasp on Shakespeare’s text and the function of each line she speaks. Summoning such crystalline emotion as to leave us breathless, she gives an aweinspiring depiction of love turned to tyranny.
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“Fine performances and the steady hand of director and company founder Lisa Wolpe contribute to the success in staging one of Shakespeare’s most difficult works…Contemplating the universal hierarchy of humanity and the gods, of the mysteries of the divine, of the powerful legacy of paganism and the endless pageant of human struggle is in itself rewarding. Director Wolpe and her fine ensemble deserve much credit for offering us this opportunity for contemplation.
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“THE TEMPEST (2003) “We are such stuff as dreams are made on”… the quote could well be the motto for the Los AngelEs Women’s Shakespeare company’s all-female production of the same: the show is a rich and lavish fantasy adroitly brought to the stage by director Lisa Wolpe…Natsuko Ohama conveys Prospero’s inner revelations with grace and subtlety – Ohama could have played the part completely with her eyes, uttering nary a word and still achieving the required emotional hues… The irrelevancy of gender is testament to this fine production’s mounting of the material, which makes it clear for the onset that it is not a novelty act or some cabaret drag show. This is Shakespeare, expertly performed!
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