Shakespeare in a Blender

As a collective with four to six members at any one time, A Company of Fools’ mandate is to create innovative and accessible pieces based on the works of William Shakespeare. The company, which currently consists of core members Margo MacDonald, Scott Florence, Elizabeth Logue, Stéfanie Séguin and Al Connors, interprets this mandate two ways: as full-length shows performed with their own spin (most often using elements of clown) and as “Shakespeare in a blender” (a collage piece, a show made up of a collection of themes from Shakespeare or Shakespeare rewritten with improvisational elements involved.) In both instances, the result is generally irreverent – a function of the very physical, presentational and interactive style of the players. Described variously as a Shakespeare comedy troupe, an antidote to boring, conventional Shakespeare, and (by one of the members) as what happens when “the Marx Brothers make coffee for the Monty Python gang at a slumber party where everyone is watching Bugs Bunny” (Florence, Interview), Ottawa’s A Company of Fools has maintained its entertaining, exuberant take on Shakespeare by not taking their source material too seriously. Through their adaptations of Shakespeare, especially the re-workings of scenes in new contexts with unexpected twists, the Fools – as they are commonly called in Ottawa – seem to epitomize a most Canadian attribute: their cultural productions do not disrupt Shakespeare as a dominant cultural figure but playfully adapt his writing and situations for their own comedic ends.