Metro Theatre to April 25, 2026
Tickets from $48 (students with ID/seniors $43); Thursdays $35. 604-266-7191 or www.metrotheatre.com
Posted April 7, 2026
If you have any doubt about the enduring nature of William Shakespeare, his life and work, consider this: in Vancouver between March 21 and the end of April, there will have been three shows inspired by the Bard. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark – the unforgettable collaboration between Robert Lepage and Guillaume Côté. Something Rotten – the rowdy, full-of-beans Studio 58 student production. Shakespeare in Love – the exuberant amateur show now on stage at Metro Theatre. As well, there’s the cinematic success of Hamnet. Anyone considering taking Shakespeare off the curriculum should get themselves to a nunnery.
The Metro Board made a bold and clever decision to get Sarah Rodgers, artistic director of United Players, to direct Metro’s Shakespeare in Love, based on the screen play by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, adapted for stage by Lee Hall. As well as Metro’s loyal fan base, opening night saw a strong attendance by a lot of professional theatre folk – actors, writers, directors, designers, critics – who probably haven’t set foot in Metro Theatre for ages but who are very interested in what Rodgers is up to and now, maybe, what Metro’s up to, too.
What Rodgers has been doing is pulling together a cast of about twenty – almost impossible in professional theatre because of the cost – plus two dogs. Anchoring this large cast are four Equity actors: Jacob Leonard (Shakespeare), Simon Webb (Henslowe), Chris McBeath (Queen Elizabeth/Molly) and Liz Connors (Nurse). Four performers – Janavi Chawla, Thomas McLeod, Nico Pante and Toby Verchere – double as minstrels so there is Elizabethan-style music throughout.
It’s 1593, Shakespeare has writers’ block and the play he’s working on, Romeo and Ethel, The Pirate’s Daughter, is not going well. At this point, you might get lost in a flurry of actual historical characters of the period including Thomas Burbage, Philip Henslowe, Christopher Marlowe, Ned Alleyn, John Webster and Edmund Tilney. Queen Elizabeth I (Chris McBeath) you will recognize by the Elizabethan collar and regal bearing. Don’t worry about; it all makes sense eventually.
Fictional character Viola de Lesseps (Cassie Unger), the theatre-loving daughter of a wealthy London merchant, decides to audition for Romeo and Ethel, despite the law prohibiting women from the stage. She binds her breast, shoves her hair under a cap and does a reading from Two Gentlemen of Verona. There wouldn’t be a story unless Shakespeare casts her as Romeo: he does. And, naturally, he falls for her at which point the story of Shakespeare and Viola parallels the story of what will become Romeo and Juliet. It’s all a bit of fun with Stoppard’s customary rapier wit. And, oh yes, there’s some very fine swordplay.
To make Shakespeare in Love work, you need a really good actor to portray Shakespeare and Rodgers found one in Jacob Leonard, a lively, swashbuckling sort of fellow who plays the bard as a desperate writer out of ideas. When Shakespeare finds himself somewhat speechless below the balcony of the lovely Viola, best buddy Christopher “Kit” Marlowe (Akshaya Pattanayak) whispers wooing words for Shakespeare to speak aloud. It’s a kind of spoof on Cyrano de Bergerac, with Marlowe as Shakespeare’s wingman. And, of course, Will climbs the shrubbery onto the balcony; the nurse tut-tuts; Viola’s mother and father make plans for Viola’s marriage to the hated Wessex; etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
The fly in this particular ointment? Shakespeare is married. Aye, there’s the rub.
It all happens on designer Omanie Elias’s handsome Tudor-style set with all the necessary balconies. Like Noises Off and other similar plays, we eventually see the players-within-the-play perform – with their backs to us – Romeo and Juliet for an imagined audience. It’s all very metatheatrical and very Tom Stoppard.
What always amazes me – and here it’s true, too – is even in a Shakespeare send-up, when the bard’s haunting lines are delivered and the tragic scenes performed, I find myself moved almost to tears. When the star-crossed lovers die, it’s tragic and sad and beautiful. But in Shakespeare in Love, sadness is short-lived.
Metro Theatre, like United Players, is onto something when they bring in a handful of professionals. Not only do the not-yet-professionals rise to the challenge but it broadens the audience base. And how great is it to see someone like actor Simon Webb come out of what he calls “bucolic retirement on Mayne Island”? Only for Sarah Rodgers and Tom Stoppard, says he.
To quote Jacob Leonard in his bio, “Long live Tom Stoppard”; I would add, “Long live Shakespeare”. Judging by the recent flurry of Shakespeare-inspired theatre offerings, it seems he’s at no risk of disappearing any century soon.