As You Like It

Work It Productions at the Fremont Troll

Through July 15.

For four years, Work It Productions has performed Shakespeare plays on and around the Fremont Troll, and, for me, the most entertaining aspect of As You Like It is watching the tourists expectantly approach the statue, Crocs on their feet and digital cameras in hand, then turning bitterly away when they realize that they can't take the requisite photos of their spawn picking the landmark's mammoth nose because there's some goddamned theater taking place.

As You Like It is arguably Shakespeare's frothiest and most crowd-pleasing number, featuring wrestling and transvestitism, and the male lead is an overachieving graffiti artist who fights a lion. The actors—Nicole Fierstein as Rosalind, Justin Lytle as Orlando, Paul Marshall as a very funny Touchstone, and particularly the charming Becky Chong as Celia—are all committed to having sexy fun.

But I can't recommend it to someone who's never read or seen another staging of the play. There's freeway traffic above, loud and slow-moving vehicles flowing mere feet away on 36th Street, sightseeing planes buzzing overhead, and bored children playing idly with cigarette butts and other litter. The cast pushes its way through these steady distractions with remarkable aplomb—if there's ever a production of The Crucible performed in a wind tunnel, or Waiting for Godot in a traffic circle, these actors could probably make a convincing go of it. For casual theatergoers, the Troll doesn't really add anything to the text, and the high quality of the performances made me long to see the same cast doing an indoor, full-dress production of the same play. PAUL CONSTANT, AGE 31

The Reluctant Dragon

Theater Schmeater in Volunteer Park

Through Aug 12.

The play The Reluctant Dragon is a lot better than the other plays I have reviewed for this paper. It is performed outside in Volunteer Park, so the actors don't have the advantages of a theater—like the ability to change the background and lighting effects—but they still do a good job. They have good costumes, particularly the dragon, who wears platform shoes and looks like a pimp.

Here is the storyline: A father comes home late one night and tells his wife and son that he is scared because he saw a dragon in some cave. The boy tells his father that he knows a lot about dragons from the fairy tales he reads, so he goes up to the cave to find the dragon. When he gets there, he finds out that the dragon is harmless, that he is a gentleman who likes to read poetry and sit in the sun. The boy and the dragon became friends, but the villagers don't like the dragon, they are scared of it and call some saint dude to come and kill it. The boy tells the dragon that the saint dude is coming to slay him, and the dragon tells the boy to go back to the village and explain to the saint dude that he doesn't want to fight. The boy tells the saint dude that the dragon doesn't want to fight, and the saint dude goes to the cave and...

I don't want to ruin the ending for you. But yes, it is a great play to watch on a Saturday afternoon in the park. EBEN DRAKE MUDEDE, AGE 11

D.R.

Wing-It Productions at Historic University Theater

Through July 20.

Two rows in front of me, Dr. Anita Pap is quizzing the shit out of fellow audience member Susan Dyer. After persistent prodding ("How are you today, Susan?" "Good." "That's not true, now is it?"), Susan admits she dispatches tugboats for a living, woke with head pain this morning, and may have no one to love but her cat. The cause of her morning headache is an alarming mystery: Tugboat gridlock? Sarcoptic kitty mange? Or something truly sinister?

So begins D.R., an improvised medical-drama spoof. The Thursday night show is well attended; either the cast has large families or it's amassed a modest fan club.

Their popularity is deserved. While each performance is improvised, practice and forethought mean numerous set changes, costumes, dramatic musical interludes, video surgery footage, and sound effects that make you think, "If I could train my vagina to clap, this is what a standing ovation would sound like." Improv purists (is there such a ridiculous thing?) might scoff at these frills, but they're a fun distraction from the show's weaker points.

D.R.'s major weakness is math-related. The idea seems to be that if you throw seven people onstage at once, someone is bound to say something funny. Boring faux-medical jargon ensues, the scene comes unglued, your mind wanders, and you wish you were medicated.

The best treatment for this comes in snappy one-liners most often delivered by Dr. Andrew, played by Brandon Jepson, and Nurse St. Danger, played by Douglas Willott. It turns out that Susan Dyer's headaches are caused by a tiny, behind-the-eye uterus. She might die. When her son hears the news, his look is resigned.

"Don't worry about it. We're Dyers. It's family tradition." CIENNA MADRID, AGE 23