On many a film critic's list of the top 10 American films, you will likely find Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. On any theatre critic's list of what he or she considers to be the best plays ever written you will almost certainly find something by William Shakespeare. So why not combine the plot and folklore of the beloved Mafia movie with the Renaissance English and dramaturgy of Shakespeare's world? That seems to have been the crafty notion of director and playwright David Mann.
Corleone: The Shakespearean Godfather puts the entire Corleone family through the blender of Elizabethan theatre and leaves little from the three-hour film untouched. In the style of the opening chorus of Romeo and Juliet or the image-based descriptions of Lennox and Ross in Macbeth, we are directly inundated with exposition throughout the 75-minute show. Eschewing guns, characters are murdered through stabbings, swordfights, and poisoned drinks. Best of all, the dialogue is in iambic pentameter.
Although the premise makes Corleone sound like an extended skit, Mann takes many of the dramatic moments from The Godfather quite seriously and creatively mixes them with Shakespeare's world. In the final moment, under low lighting, Prince Michael (Ã la Henry IV) is informed by his hired murderers (Ã la Macbeth) that the other Mafia "earls" have been assassinated. By then the audience is firmly absorbed in this well-conceived adaptation. Corleone makes a swell Fringe show for those who consider themselves both film buffs and classical-theatre fans.
Presented by David Mann Performance as part of the New York International Fringe Festival
at the Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal St., NYC.
Aug. 13-25. Remaining performance: Fri., Aug. 25, 10 p.m.
(212) 279-4488 or www.fringenyc.org.