"Drunk Shakespeare" -- apparently it's a thing

ThelmaLou
Fri, 18 Apr 2025 13:46:23 +0000
Cafe Society

The Shakespearean actor who goes onstage absolutely hammered

Behind the scenes at Drunk Shakespeare, where Lady Macbeth takes shots of raspberry vodka.

https://wapo.st/42AwztP [gift link]

For over a decade, Drunk Shakespeare has created alcohol-soaked renditions of the Bard. The gimmick goes like this: One actor begins by drinking three shots of straight liquor (Chaffee chose raspberry vodka). As a choppy production of “Macbeth” ensues, four other performers try, and increasingly fail, to keep the script on track. Eventually, the performer drinks another shot and, toward the end, the witches’ brew, which changes every night. In reality, Chaffee says, the show is about 50 percent scripted. The other half is improvised, with plenty of opportunities built in for the actors to fall off script.

“I do try to keep my Shakespeare as good as I can for as long as I can,” she says. “But the liquor’s gonna do what the liquor’s gonna do.”

Here in Washington and in four other cities across the country, Drunk Shakespeare has become something of an underground phenomenon, attracting new types of crowds that may never set foot inside the Kennedy Center. It’s advertised on social media, but much of its longevity comes via word of mouth. With such a small audience, the performance feels intimate — and despite the booze-fueled raunch and improvised mayhem, the actors know how to make Shakespeare sing.

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Drunk Shakespeare is a break from how most Shakespearean tragedies are experienced today, with no talking and cellphones off and everyone dressed up for the occasion to claim their $800 seat to see Denzel Washington on Broadway. But in some ways, it’s a return to the Bard’s roots.

In early modern London, when sewage flowed freely through the streets and the Thames, you’d be hard-pressed to find a sober Globe Theatre guest.
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More follows on drunkenness in Elizabethan theaters. Blech.

Has anyone been to one of these performances? Do you have the slightest interest?

Having lived with an alcoholic (and having gone through a heavy-drinking period of my own) I do not find drunkenness amusing. I never liked stereotypical drunk characters (like Otis on the Andy Griffith Show) who were meant to be pathetic and funny. I can’t even watch the old Thin Man movies because everyone always has a drink in their hand.

I must be waaaay behind the times.

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