This is an odd review (beyond the conceit that a comedian should be more conventional) that nicely encapsulates AVC's odd aesthetic of comedy. To illustrate with one key passage:

[opens door]

Which of course draws from the one contemporary drawing of a Shakespeare play, the Peacham drawing, which shows a bit from Titus Andronicus with characters in English and Roman costumes. Even in Shakespeare's time people had no problem mixing historical eras together.

It's not dumb at all if done properly. In fact one can argue that the point of staging the plays is to make connections to our world to highlight their contemporary relevance.

On a similar note, someone I know is really interested in chessboards in films–apparently it's astonishing how frequently the arrangement of pieces would never occur in a game between two people who had some idea of how to play.

'This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine'

Indeed, that's why all the Connections between Shakespeare's characters and Trump break down

And to a great degree this is one of the core reasons why we restage Shakespeare's political plays: they can help us see, understand, grapple with, discuss &c our current situation. It's troubling if any theatrical productions that tries to incorporate some aspect of the Trump administration is going to be met with…

There's a lot of room for this reading. I like to point out that King Henry never satisfactorily answers the soldiers' objections to and anxieties about war when he visits them on the battlefield; instead he humbles Williams with a Hal-like prank.

Fuck Bank of America.

Jesus. Good luck getting tickets; that sounds awesome.

Indeed. No accident that the H5 prologue asks the audience to imagine horses and armies.

Henry V does get talked into going to war by a couple of churchmen in the first act. And I think the play's far more ambivalent about war than most popular productions (certainly the film versions) grant. It's not hard to use it to read the Bush administration.

Iago is motivated by spite, resentment, and racism, so maybe!

Indeed King Lear *is* an old man who demands absolute fealty from everyone in his life–especially the women–and who makes a poorly thought out political decision at the beginning of the play, and then goes crazy

I have a few colleagues who've recently taught Macbeth as a way to talk about how fascism can take hold. So certainly worth thinking about a Trumpian Macbeth.

But Trump would work well as Morose in Epicoene.

I can sort of see that as a potential fit–a director could do something interesting with Richard/Trump's deformity–but of course the real Trump isn't nearly as clever or even Machiavellian, and that's where the comparison sort of breaks down for me. But it's worth trying out.

Fuck Delta Airlines.

I'm not sure there's a Shakespearean character that really maps onto Trump. I got in an argument with someone during the election who was arguing Shakespeare was like Coriolanus; I argue that while Coriolanus is ill-tempered and hates the plebeians he was also a war hero who earned his status, which made him a poor…