[Dumbo/J Condo photo via Flickr/oranged_og]
Arden of Faversham, according to Wikipedia, is a 16th Century Elizabethan play that "depicts the murder of one Thomas Arden by his wife and her lover, and their subsequent discovery and punishment." Sounds fun, but what does it have to do with us? Well, let's briefly forget about our NO EVENTS policy and tell you about Spring Theatreworks' modern-day adaptation of the play, entitled ARDEN: The Lamentable Tragedie of a DUMBO Real Estate Mogul:
By piecing together scenes from both pre-existing texts the co-adaptors have modernized the story and situated it amidst the current real estate market in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Thomas Arden is owner of Arden Properties, a significant competitor in the sizzling DUMBO real estate market. Thanks to his strong political ties, Arden has just been given exclusive rights by the city to develop a hotly contested plot of land, successfully wrenching it out of the hands of Green who believes he is the rightful owner. However, even despite this substantial victory, Arden’s ego is bruised. He suspects that his wife Alicia, formerly renowned for her faithfulness, has been cheating on him with Mosby, a man far below her reputation. It is left up to the audience to decide where the true tragedy in this story lies.It all sounds fairly tragic to us. And Dumbo will also turn up in the newest Grand Theft Auto video game, which is set in a digitized version of New York. According to Joystiq's preview, Dumbo has been rebranded BOABO, which stands for "Beneath the Offramp of the Algonquin Bridge Overpass." "Algonquin" is the name of Manhattan in the game. And in perhaps a scathing commentary, Brooklyn is renamed simply "Broker." BK still has it better than Staten Island though, which is left out completely.
· ARDEN: The Lamentable Tragedie of a DUMBO Real Estate Mogul [Spring Theatreworks]