UF students will take to the North Lawn this week to act out a unique Shakespeare play.
UF’s Shakespeare in the Park is hosting it’s annual free production from Thursday to Sunday, but unlike years prior, it won’t be held on the Plaza of the Americas due to construction. This year students are performing Troilus and Cressida, a problem play, meaning it has components of a comedy and a tragedy, said Alena Poulin, the public relations officer for the club.
The play will be performed at 7 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday and at 1 p.m. on Sunday, the 21-year-old UF journalism junior said.
The play’s two separate plot lines take place in Troy and Greece and contain elements of popular Greek mythology, she said.
“There are a lot of different themes to it,” she said. “There’s love, there’s jealousy, there’s tragedy and political warfare.”
David Ponoroff, the production’s co-director, said he wanted the club to put on this production because it’s different from other Shakespeare plays.
“It’s like Romeo and Juliet mixed with the Trojan war, and instead of whiny teens there’s people actually dealing with real human emotions and problems,” the 22-year-old UF political science and sustainability studies senior said.
Sarah Hall, a 21-year-old psychology junior, said she’s playing Ajax, a Greek prince with a lot of brawn and little brain. She said most people are afraid of Shakespeare, but this play should be appealing to college students.
“Shakespeare has a lot of dirty jokes that people just don’t catch,” she said. “This one is chock full of those, a lot of sword fighting, and I think college students like dirty jokes and sword fighting.”
Members of UF’s Shakespeare in the Park practice for their upcoming production of Troilus and Cressida. The free play is being put on Thursday to Sunday on the North Lawn.
