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MacHomer Returns

Rick Miller's Take On The Bard's Tragedy...D'OH!

Sep 7, 2006 Mike Mackenzie

After winning over theatre audiences with his hit one-man show Bigger Than Jesus, Rick Miller returns to his first hit show to celebrate 10 years of hilarity.

William Shakespeare may in fact be rolling over in his grave right now. His work has been demolished by amateur thespians world wide for hundreds of years, been turned into Broadway musicals, and has spawned several movie rip offs (including The Lion King, 10 Things I Hate About You and this years teen hit She's The Man) but never before has Shakespeares words been uttered by a pop culture icon like Homer Simpson - until now.

MacHomer, which began its life as a cast party skit when Rick Miller was playing Murderer #2 in a production of Macbeth in Montreal back in 1995, is back in Toronto, celebrating it's 10 year anniversary as version 4.0, or so says the cover of the program. I haven't seen versions 1.0 through 3.0, so who knows what kind of craziness has been cut or added since its conception. The story is one we all know (or should know from our high school english days) about Macbeth, who murders the King of Scotland to claim the throne, kills his closest confidant, and his best friends family to keep himself in power, which leads him to be murdered himself. It is not the most uplifting evening of theatre. It can, in fact, be quite gruesome and quite odd, but with Homer and Marge uttering the lines as MacHomer and Lady MacHomer, the story becomes somewhat of a comedy. How can you not laugh at the Witches, this time played by the Sea Captain, Moe The Bartender, and Principal Skinner? It's impossible.

Miller plays all 55 roles in the show, and is captivating throughout. All of the famous characters from the TV show are here, including Ralph, Chief Wiggum, C. Montgomery Burns, Milhouse, and of course, the Simpson clan and the incomporable Ned Flanders. Miller does a wonderful job with the voices, including the women - his voicing of Marge is bang on, which is quite an accomplishment. His charisma and stage presence has the audience eating out of his hand from the moment he steps on the stage.

Sean Lynch, who is the director of the piece, has done a great job in conjunction with Miller to clearly articulate this cut-down version of the story with only one actor. The blocking is simple and concise, and Beth Kates' design works for the play perfectly. The projections on the back "tv" screen takes us from location to location, and helps clarify the action of the play to the audience.

This 75 minute version should be required viewing for those who are interested in Shakespeare, but find the 3 hour versions a little slow and tiresome. If I had seen this when I was in high school, I think I would have done better on my grade 10 english final.

Don't wait another 10 years to see this show - in fact, don't waste another moment. This is a great night of fun theatre not to be missed.

MacHomer

Presented By WYRD Productions

Now Until September 30th, 2006

**** (out of five)

MacHomer Website

The copyright of the article MacHomer Returns in Modern World Theatre is owned by Mike Mackenzie. Permission to republish MacHomer Returns in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.