There was something about this little play that put me in the spirit of the season like nothing else could…or like nothing else has so far, anyway.
My gratitude goes to the Long Beach Shakespeare Company for its spirited production of The Second Shepherds’ Play, a simple saga depicting the trials and tribulations of three shepherds struggling to protect their meager livelihoods in 14th Century England.
Theater of the time, having recently separated itself from religion, strove to appeal to the commoner, whose everyday challenges were not unlike our own. It’s true. They dealt with high taxation, unfair employers and petty thievery, to name a few.
The play tells its story of thievery and comeuppance boldly and directly. The plot is so easy to discern that it scarcely matters that we understand only some of the play’s roughly Shakespearean English. We follow along just fine, all the while enjoying the sounds, the rhymes, and the fervent and sometimes comical angst of the characters.
Written by someone now apparently known only as the Wakefield master, The Second Shepherds’ Play began as a half-hour-long drama. Director Helen Borgers has ingeniously lengthened it to almost an hour with the infusion of Christmas music, including a musical pageant with angels, the three kings, and the three shepherds’ pilgrimage to Bethlehem to bestow gifts upon the baby Jesus.
Rich costumes and surprisingly lavish vocals seem to belie the intimacy of the Richard Goad Theatre, making the space somehow grander and the production more abundant than one would think possible.
The talented cast includes Cory Norman, Mike Austin, Julian Velasco, Hunter Greene, Melissa Miller, Rachel Buffett, Juliana Perez, Fiona Ausin and Julian Gonzalez. Highlights are the performances of Miller, as the wife of Mak the sheep thief, and young Velasco whose portrayal of the cleverest shepherd was superb. And his recorder playing really rocked.
The Second Shepherds’ Play took me to another place and to a simpler time, letting me lose myself in a theatrical experience that might have looked very much the same six hundred years ago. I would recommend families find an hour’s window of time amidst the holiday hubbub and catch a performance of this fine production of a rarely presented play.
The Second Shepherds’ Play is presented by the Long Beach Shakespeare Company and continues at the Richard Goad Theatre, located at 4250 Atlantic Avenue in Long Beach, through Dec. 22. General admission tickets are $15; $10 for students. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. Call (562) 997-1494 for reservations and information. Visit them online at www.lbshakespeare.org.
