SOURCE: Simon, John. “P-Shaw.” New York 33, no. 7 (21 February 2000): 101-02.

In the following excerpted review of Karin Coonrod's Theatre for a New Audience production of King John, Simon faults the production on several levels. Simon argues that the acting was weak, the production was not opulent enough to adequately treat the play's pageantry, and the director failed to capture the play's complexity and subtlety.

A lesser play of Shakespeare's, King John requires three things to work: a director alert to subtleties and complexities that need stressing or clarifying; an accomplished cast of (preferably English) actors who can handle convolution and orotundity, and can humanize schematic characters; and an opulent production to do justice to the pageantry and obviate the need for triple-casting performers who have a hard enough time with a single role.

Theatre for a New Audience here lacks all three resources. The director, Karin Coonrod, cannot make...