Knight
of the Burning Pestle
What the Critics Said:
“Silliness prevails….a rare opportunity to sample
some of the diversity of stage offerings in Shakespeare’s
day….Currier attempts to amplify the comedy by making
it more contemporary and much more zany. He’s streamlined
the text, excising the more esoteric material, and
replaces the arcane local references with Marin equivalents
and the many songs with snippets of rock, country,
pop, show and even calypso tunes – generally to good
effect….George Maguire… deliver[s] his punch lines
with deadly accuracy as the company manager playing
the merchant Venturewell. So does the invaluable
Jarion Monroe as the bibulous, happy-go-lucky Merrythought….Julian
Lopez-Morillas is a model aged hippie George, in
tie-dye and gray ponytail. Linda Paplow is very funy
as a Nell alternately outraged, smitten and overwhelmed
by her first experience of live theater. Darren Bridgett
has a field day as a naïve, congenial Ralph, comically
dazzled by his stage debut….There’s some very funny
stuff in this ‘Pestle,’ including many of the songs
and some of the topical humor. There are some obvious
bawdy pestle jokes, as well.”
Rob Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle
 
“It began with Marin Shakespeare Artistic Director Bob
Currier brandishing a tumescent organic zucchini while
exhorting the crowd on opening night to buy raffle tickets,
and continued through the pratfalls of garishly costumed
circus folk putting on a Jacobean play-within-a-play-within-a…the
explosions of mirth, I mean; giggles, laughter, screeches
and howls of unending mirth in answer to the unalloyed
schtick and silliness of The Knight of the Burning
Pestle.”
Ken Bullock, The Commuter Times
“Mister Currier is to be recognized
for letting his genius, and the genius of his cast
and crew, out of the bottle: indeed, he has thrown
away the cork. To see what comedy entertainment would
be like if Westinghouse had never invented the television
and if directors were not nebbish auteurs, get thee
to ‘The Knight of the Burning Pestle.’
Jeffrey R. Smith, Bay Area Critics Circle
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