Shakespeare In The Parking Lot to Present TWO NOBLE KINSMEN Live In Two Locations

The Drilling Company will return with Shakespeare in the Parking Lot July 15 to 30, offering a portable three-week run of "Two Noble Kinsmen," a rarely-produced curiosity of the Shakespearean canon. Performances will begin July 15, 16, 17 in the parking Lot of The Clemente, 107 Suffolk Street; move July 19, 20, 21 to Bryant Park, and return July 28 29, 30 to The Clemente. Director Hamilton Clancy is re-envisioning the story of Thebes and Athens into a modern spy caper complete with two Russian spies, a corporate magnate and an Interpol spycatcher.

"The Two Noble Kinsmen" is a play by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare that was reprinted in a second folio edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays in 1679. Its story is taken from "The Knight's Tale" by Chaucer. It is generally accepted to be The Bard's final play before he retired to Stratford-Upon-Avon and died three years later--a collaboration of an older playwright with one whose career had only begun. The play is a tragicomedy in the manner of Fletcher. It was most famously adapted to the restoration stage by Sir William Davenant as "The Rivals" in 1664. (See plot summary below.)

Shakespeare in the Parking Lot frequently adapts its productions to modern dress and in this instance, it was resolved by Director Hamilton Clancy and Assistant Director Karla Hendrick to couch the play's circumstances in the modern world so as to reflect the tensions of our time. On the heels of the Biden-Putin Summit, the play is being re-envisioned as modern espionage story.

Director Hamilton Clancy is Artistic Director of The Drilling Company and the most frequent director of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, for whom he has staged 18 Shakespeare productions to-date. He has also acted there as Henry V, Julius Caesar, Petruchio and Benedick, among others. He played Tor, a Norwegian mobster, in the Drilling Company's long-running comedy, "The Norwegians" and has appeared in TV shows including "Orange is the New Black" (SAG Award Best Ensemble Seasons 2&3), "One Dollar," "Blue Bloods," "Bull," "Billions," "Mindhunter" and "Gotham."

The ensemble is led by long time Drilling Company stalwarts Brad Frost as Palemon and John Caliendo as Arsite with Jane Bradley in the show-stealing part of the Jailer's Daughter. The ensemble also includes Liz Livingston, Lucas Rafael, Mary Linehan, Jaqwan Turner and Remy Souchon. Assistant Director is Karla Hendrick. Costume design is by Sofia Piccolo. Set design is by Jennifer Varbalow.

This production is presented by The Drilling Company and co-presented by The Clemente and Bryant Park Picnics.

Admission is free. At The Clemente, chairs are provided on a first come, first served basis and audience members are welcome to bring their own. At Bryant Park, free chairs are plentiful. As of this writing, The Clemente is still requiring masks, Bryant Park does not.

Rainout notices will be posted on www.shakespeareintheparkinglot.com and www.drillingcompany.org.

The Drilling Company's Shakespeare in the Parking Lot has been a Lower East Side neighborhood institution for over 25 years. Its concept--presenting Shakespeare plays with a "poor theater" aesthetic in a working parking lot--is now widely imitated around the US and around the world, with productions as far away as New Zealand. Last summer, the attraction was suspended due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

Bryant Park Picnics (www.bryantpark.orgryantparkpresents) is a performing arts series that creates adventurous and immersive outdoor cultural experiences in the middle of Midtown Manhattan.

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