THEATER REVIEW OF WILLIAM

FRINGE THEATER REVIEWS
BY
BINA SHARIF

WILLIAM : A ONE MAN MUSICAL ABOUT WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(Book, Music and Lyrics in Swedish by Jan-Erik Saaf
Translation into English by Owen Robertson )
Directed by Andreas Boonstra
Time of this ply is 1592
The place is London.

Many a times when we go to see a one person Shakespeare play, it turns out to be about the most famous monologues ever written by Shespeare.  That doesn't mean that those are bad efforts but when the actor do a bad job at doing,"To be,
or not to be" badly you instantly lose it and wait  eternally for more recitations of poorly done.
Not here.  Astoundingly fresh, original, witty, imaginative and intelligent from beginning to the end.

Jonas Nerbe the actor and the singer who plays William is a prince himself with an incredible stage presence and a beautiful voice accompanied by a group of handsome dames, (String Quarter) Sarah
Koenig-Ploskier, Caterina Longhi and Bridget Pasker clad in beautiful red and black skirts.
The whole motif of stage design is red and black including William's Jacket which is very effective.
With such simple touches the production achieves the most powerful vision.
In one scene the ladies of the string quartet join  Jonas Nerbe (William) and play the weird sisters from Macbeth evoking such laughter and fun.

The actor concentrate on the life of William Shakespeare during the time of 1592 beginning with
Richard the third and before the opening of Romeo and Juliet and concentrate on Shakespeare's sonnets
which he sings beautifully.  Also the play William reveals the struggle of the author, his competitive spirit with Marlow and his mysterious passions between the young Earl of Southhampton and that sexy lady always mentioned as the Dark Lady of his sonnets.

Jonas Nerbe is excellent throughout this fascinating work and its amazing that the fringe festival got him and gave us all the chance to see the dedication and sophistication with which the whole production is held together.
I would love to follow Jonas Nerbe's career in the future but since he is based in Sweden might be hard
so I would love to see this William and more of his work maybe at Public theater perhaps.
This play desreve to have a come back in NY.