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Shakespeare with a twist: Upstart Crows turn tragedy into comedy with the help of Monty Python
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Sword fights. Dead parrots. Tragedy. Poetry.
The Upstart Crows are weaving Monty Python with Shakespeare into something completely different.
On Friday, July 12, through Sunday, July 14, the Santa Fe troupe will perform the mash-up of scenes at The Crows’ Nest, 7 Caliente Road, in Santa Fe. The Upstart Crows are a theater group for young people ages 10 to 18 with a focus on Shakespeare.
Shakespeare with a twist: Upstart Crows turn tragedy into comedy with the help of Monty Python
“And now for something completely different” explores classic Shakespearean themes with Monty Python skits. The Crows last performed the irreverent tapestry in 2019.
Founding director Caryl Farkas got the idea when she was attending a comedy workshop in Madison, Wisconsin. A similar group was working on scenes from Mel Brooks to learn comedic timing. Of course, they had never heard of the famed director.
“But they did know Python,” Farkas said. “It’s the most popular thing we’ve ever done. You kind of brace yourself for three hours of ‘King Lear’ and they’d be coming out of the theater cracking up.”
Farkas unraveled the common threads between the two.
“Comedy makes mock of something serious, Shakespeare is 100% about our humanity, so it’s easy to find parallels,” she said.
The famous “Macbeth” scene with the three witches stirring the cauldron pairs with a scene from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
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Sir Bedivere prevents a crowd from stoning a woman in a pointed hat and a carrot nose, saying, “She turned me into a newt. I got better.”
An actor performs Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy to the Monty Python song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from “Life of Brian.”
Farkas paired the Python’s famous “Dead Parrot” sketch with a scene of Falstaff faking death and coming back to life from “Henry IV, Part 1.”
“Our rehearsal name is ‘Lying Liars,’ ” she said with a laugh.
The show will star a cast of eight.
“They’re having a fabulous time,” Farkas said. “They all seem to know ‘The Holy Grail.’ ”
