Matthew Murray takes a look at These Paper Bullets!:
Go to the theatre often enough, and it becomes hard to shake the feeling that there are more spins on Shakespeare plays than there actually are Shakespeare plays — they just seem to have the same titles and use the same language, even if one or the other (or both) flies in the face of reason. So These Paper Bullets!, which just opened at the Atlantic Theater Company's Linda Gross Theater, starts off ahead in one respect: It's a "spin" that doesn't pretend it's the original, and thus frees you of expecting to see greatness when mediocrity is really what's in the offering. So kudos to playwright Rolin Jones for taking the plunge and admitting up front that, although he's taking as his inspiration the great Shakespeare comedy Much Ado About Nothing, he's (gasp!) creating something new. . . . |
