Acorn Productions' Naked Shakespeare to Present SEVEN DEADLY SINS

Naked Shakespeare, Acorn Productions' performance series dedicated to presenting the works of the Bard in accessible ways for contemporary audiences, continues their popular series of First Friday performances next month with two performances of "Seven Deadly Sins," a series of seven highly-abridged stories from seven different plays, each of which highlights a different vice. Naked Shakespeare Artistic Director abridged the scripts and directs the show, which features a cast of twelve actors, with several company members joined by a few guest artists. Unlike previous First Friday shows, "Seven Deadly Sins" will be a series of self-contained short pieces, allowing audience members to experience both extremely well-known selections from Othello and The Tempest as well as lesser known plays including Timon of Athens and Coriolanus. Naked Shakespeare's First Friday shows begin a month of Shakespeare performances by various companies designed to coincidence with the visit of a copy of the First Folio at the Portland Public Library. The performances are free with a $10 suggested donation. For more information, audience members are encouraged to visit Acorn's website at www.acorn-productions.org.

Most people are familiar with the seven deadly sins: anger, gluttony, greed, jealousy, lust, pride, and sloth, and Shakespeare's canon is filled with characters who practice each of them. In order to create a balanced and engaging evening of entertainment, as well as advancing Naked Shakespeare's mission to educate the Portland community about Shakespeare's works, adapter Michael Levine mixes a variety of selections from comedies, histories and tragedies in the seven plays that make up "Seven Deadly Sins." Audience will instantly recognize the antics of Falstaff (gluttony - Henry IV, parts one and two), the Machiavellian machinations of Iago (jealousy - Othello), the desire for revenge felt by Prospero (anger - The Tempest), the relaxed philosophy of Jaques (sloth - As You Like It, and even the blackmailing hypocrite Angelo (lust - Measure for Measure). Joining these familiar characters are the hermit Timon (greed - Timon of Athens) and the war hero turned exile Coriolanus (pride - Coriolanus). The company presents "Seven Deadly Sins" at the usual time of 7pm on Friday Friday, March 4th, but has moved the Saturday performance on March 5th to 5pm in order to allow actors and audience members alike the chance to experience "Pop-Up Hamlet" which PortFringe is presenting that evening.