Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

TAG has picked a winner for its season-opener. Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) has an award-winning script about a mousy academic who finds herself thrust into Desdemona’s Cyprus and Juliet’s Verona. It’s witty and clever, as you might expect from writer Ann-Marie MacDonald. The set design by Brenda Tyedmers is attractive and effective—no easy feat considering that the small curtain- less stage has to be everything from an office at a present-day university to Othello’s Citadel. Lorraine Cantwell as Constance Ledbelly, the transported academic, is marvelous, managing to make the character believably eccentric and lovable. With the help of a bloodthirsty Desdemona (beautifully portrayed by Rayna Smith Camp) and the sex and death-obsessed Juliet (Rachelle Payne in a hilarious turn), Constance finds her inner strength. Jonathan Tyson as Othello and Johnathan Munroe as Romeo are a lot of fun to watch, but this really is a play where the women shine. Hear them roar! –Kate Watson.