(Shakespeare returns to Alexander Grove Park when Company of Fools perform Hamlet under the stars on August 5th. Photos: Company of Fools)
A Company of Fools is back bringing Shakespeare to over forty Ottawa parks and beyond all summer long! This season, the Company will be tackling Shakespeare’s most iconic play – Hamlet. The fast-paced 90-minute rendition of the Bard’s greatest tragedy will feature disemboweled puppets, a sword fight to the death, live underscoring, and 5 actors taking on 15 different roles. Hamlet will be performed on Saturday, August 5th at Alexander Grove with curtain up at 7:00pm.
Andrea Massoud of Kanata will be lending her talents to the roles of Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Horatio. Along with Andrea, there will be Maryse Fernandes starring as Hamlet and reimagines Shakespeare’s iconic protagonist as a ‘mad young woman’. Micah Jondel DeShazer, who played Ariel and Caliban in last summer’s production of The Tempest, stars alongside Maryse as the diabolical King Claudius. Rounding out the team is Ottawa’s Jacqui Du Toit, a storyteller and founder of The Origin Arts Centre, as Queen Gertrude. Fools’ veteran Mitch Rose plays both father and son, Polonius and Laertes. A Company of Fools’ Artistic Director Nicholas Leno and resident designer Vanessa Imeson will again spearhead the production’s creative team. Fools fans will remember Nicholas and Vanessa’s carnivalesque take on Romeo and Juliet in 2019.
We caught up with Andrea in between rehearsals and performances. Andrea may be familiar to those who attend the Company of Fools’ performances, she performed as Benvolio in 2019’s Romeo & Juliet. Andrea resides in Toronto, but loves to come home to spend time with her family who reside in Kanata and Ottawa. “I treasure being with my family. Performing with The Company of Fools provides the perfect opportunity to spend more time with my family during the summer” said Andrea.
Andrea has been performing since she took dance classes and musical theatre during high school with the OSSD. During that time, one of her theatre arts teachers encouraged her to take more drama classes. The high school Cappies were just being inaugurated and he felt she would be a complement to any high school production.
Since that time Andrea told us, “I was especially drawn to Shakespeare when I attended Ryerson University (now the Toronto Metropolitan University) to study performance acting, although I took musical theatre and studied new modern plays. But one of my professors, Ian Watson, was happy to help me ignite my interest in performing primarily Shakespeare and I began with studying Hamlet.“
Andrea’s affiliation with the Company of Fools began in 2017 when she participated in a workshop; and, in 2019 was quick to return to the group to perform in Romeo and Juliet. When the request was made to perform in this year’s production of Hamlet, she was happy to join the Fools again.
Andrea is not only a performer, but has also been a producer. In 2013, she was Co-Producer of ‘Surviving Speares‘ and in 2015, Andrea was the Producer of ‘Boys From the Burbs‘. This year, Andrea won a Dora Mavor Moore Award that acknowledges excellence in Toronto theatre and performing arts. With her ensemble from Shakespeare in Action, the group won for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble for Romeo and Juliet.
Of her Dora Award, Andrea told us, “Romeo and Juliet was facilitated for teenagers by the Shakespeare in Action group to perform parts in the play. It was magical to receive the Dora Award.”
“I also look forward to the end of the park performances when we enter into our school tour in the fall. We will visit local schools to give workshops that will teach the students about live theatre and Shakespeare in particular,” Andrea shared.
With regard to playing four parts in this production of Hamlet, Andrea told us, “it is a gift to play all of the parts – being able to play with the various voices. It will be fun.”
About Hamlet – Returning home to attend her father’s funeral, Hamlet discovers that another ceremony has already taken place: the marriage of her mother to her uncle. That’s right, her dead father’s brother. When Hamlet is visited by her father’s ghost demanding that she avenge his murder, Hamlet begins to wonder – is it she who has gone mad or everyone around her? The play takes place in a fairytale-inspired Elsinor, an extravagant kingdom ruled by the freshly crowned King Claudius. But don’t let its decadent appearance fool you, there’s something rotten in this fairytale wonderland. Re-imagined to feature a female Hamlet, her feigned madness is a rejection of feminine expectations and an attempt to free herself from a fake world. This is the story of a quest for justice that exposes what happens when a young woman challenges authority.
Join the Fools this summer as they delve into the depths of the human experience and have a few laughs along the way. Whether you’re a Shakespeare nerd or this is your first foray with the Bard since high school, their foolish take on Hamlet has something for everyone. Bring a lawn chair or blanket, bug spray, picnic, and your sense of humour. Pass-the-hat donations are collected at the end of the performance and can be submitted in the form of cash, credit card, cheque, or bars of gold.
For more information on the show and a detailed park schedule, visit www.fools.ca.
