GALATEA (Red Bull Theater/WP Theater)****

 

By Dave 

Link: https://www.redbulltheater.com/galatea-mj-kaufman 

Available until: Friday March 26^th

Last week Red Bull Theater presented John Lyly’s Gallathea, first performed in 1588.

This week, Red Bull Theater and WP Theater present a more modern version of the show, Galatea, written by MJ Kaufman and first performed in 2018.

Galatea is said to be loosely based on Gallathea but it seems to me like it actually follows the story quite closely. The characters have the same names and Neptune is still causing trouble, demanding virgin sacrifices. The difference is more in the style – Galatea is written in modern language, it refers directly to modern terms like transgenderism and it’s very witty.

GALLATHEA (Red Bull Theater)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.redbulltheater.com/gallathea 

Available until: Friday March 19^th 11.30pm GMT, 7.30pm EST

John Lyly’s Gallathea could have been a farce and it probably could be played as a farce. Two girls, Gallathea and Phillida, are forced by their fathers to disguise themselves as boys. Gallathea and Phillida meet and fall in love, each thinking the other is a boy. (And in the original production, which was performed for Elizabeth I, they really were boys – all the characters were played by men.)