As for the characterizations, Packer goes for broke — with mixed results. Most of the actors are multiply cast, flitting among Greek and Trojan personas. The most impressive double turn is by Robert Walsh as a sleazy low-rent Pandarus sporting stubble and a cummerbund, and a stonily fierce Agamemnon in Second World War threads. On the other hand, Johnnie McQuarley, so compelling in Company One's The Brother/Sister Plays, has been directed to play "beef-witted" Ajax like something out of The Flintstones. (He is also a subdued Paris.) Craig Mathers proves a savvy Ulysses, and Bobbie Steinbach does a daring turn as a Priam seemingly beset by Parkinson's disease and dementia. Maurice Emmanuel Parent, though he shouts too much, is an ardent, disciplined Troilus. And Brooke Hardman is an unusually gutsy Cressida, as done in by sexual profiling as by her own nature.
Related:
Groundlings, rejoice: The 11 most anticipated theater shows of the fall, Brustein takes another look at Will's world, Spring theater offerings, More 
- Groundlings, rejoice: The 11 most anticipated theater shows of the fall
Fall came early to Boston boards this year, bringing with it "Summertime."
- Brustein takes another look at Will's world
Call it the revenge of Tom Stoppard. Considered a great contemporary playwright by most theater writers, Stoppard has been something of a punching bag to Robert Brustein, one of America's most distinguished critics.
- Spring theater offerings
Boston Playwrights' Theatre closes out its winter season with DEPORTED / A DREAM PLAY (March 8–April 1; bu.edu/bpt).
- TRIST’s delightful twist on Twelfth Night
From the earliest days of the Rhode Island Shakespeare Theater (TRIST) in the 1970s, its founder and director Bob Colonna has been one of the state's keenest and cleverest interpreters of the Bard.
- RI Shakespeare Theatre’s As You Like It
Shakespeare never wrote a better comedy than As You Like It .
- Colonial’s Macbeth in Wilcox Park
The dolorous Dane provides endless fascination and those star-crossed lovers will never run out of fans, but for sheer density of dramatic emotional conflict nothing beats Macbeth , as the Colonial Theatre is demonstrating in Westerly's Wilcox Park through July 29.
- Fenix Theatre face the challenges of the Scottish play
Theater's al fresco season is upon us, and once again the Fenix Theatre Company regales us with a Shakespeare classic as we nestle against a hillside in Deering Oaks Park.
- Monmouth’s Henry IV is stunning
Shakespeare's Henry IV is considered one of his "histories," as it enacts actual acts and battles of the British king who deposed Richard II.
- Commonwealth Shakespeare Company takes on Coriolanus
The man of the hour is running for high office, and he has the support of the party faithful and the moneyed interests, but before he can claim victory, he must ingratiate himself with the unwashed masses, even as rival interests conspire to blacken his name and deprive him of all popular appeal.
- Trinity Rep’s superb King Lear
It's not a new thing, the complications of elder care.
- Leigh and Melissa’s delightful Hamlette
A two-person female Hamlet set in contrast to the drudgery of office work?
- Less
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Theater
, Shakespeare, Actors' Shakespeare Project, modern theatre, More
, Shakespeare, Actors' Shakespeare Project, modern theatre, Troilus and Cressida, Less
