As its title suggests, Shakespeare in the Saddle sets about selling the Bard to American audiences. In the process, it pushes rather pointedly home the notion that he belongs as much to the New World as the Old.

In Estelle Kohler and Bill Homewood, both members of the famed company that bears his name, Mr. Shakespeare has two gifted exponents of his art.

Bill Homewood has devised a duo play-reading that is interspersed with guitar-accompanied songs of the English and American folk variety.

In a two-hour virtuoso performance, we were swept on to the shores of the Bermudas, where the wreck of the Sea Venture set in motion the story that was to unfold as Shakespeare's valedictory play, The Tempest. And in spite of a less than welcoming reception from the Puritans of New England, who pronounced themselves strongly against "Papists and players'', the art of the theatre somehow survived on that sprawling continent. This was often in spite of remarkable odds, when the pioneering thespians from England brought such popular pieces as Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice to largely uncomprehending Americans -- to say nothing of the native Indians who were "much surprised'' by the plot of Othello.

Settling happily into American accents, Estelle Kohler and Bill Homewood demonstrated how Americans themselves took up the torch of Shakespearean acting, particularly through the gifted Booth family. Its future was placed in jeopardy, however, when Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, and the clergy were quick to point out that the President had met his end in a theatre. It should perhaps also be noted that both perpetrator and victim quoted Shakespeare -- Booth complaining that he was being hounded "for doing what Brutus was honoured for'' and Lincoln, in his dying moments, echoing Macbeth's, "Treason has done his worst''.

There were fascinating reminiscences of her American tours by the great actress Fanny Kemble who, luckily for us, was also an accomplished diarist.

Then there was the horrific experience of Charles McCready who was unfortunate enough to be appearing as Macbeth ("my death was loudly cheered'') at the time of the American Revolution. Who would believe now that the protesting riots against an actor would end in the death of 17 people? A sense of humour was "a pre-requisite'' for the Shakespearean actor, and our two contemporary artists brought some fine touches of comedic acting which brought those days of makeshift theatres and very vocal audiences marvellously alive.

While we may be fortunate to live on the isle that inspired Shakespeare to write The Tempest, we are, nevertheless, fairly starved for Shakespearean acting, especially of this calibre. Which may explain a certain sense of regret that so much of this entertainment was devoted to explaining the development of America's Shakespearean drama, rather than demonstrating it.

Certainly, the moments given over to Shakespeare's words were by far the highlights of the evening, as evinced in Bill Homewood's wonderfully comic "dog'' speech from The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and the climactic point at the end when the Balcony Speech from Romeo and Juliet slides effortlessly into the American version of the immortal tale as West Side Story.

PATRICIA CALNAN SHAKESPEARE, AMERICAN STYLE -- Stars of Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company, Estelle Kohler and Bill Homewood in Shakespeare in the Saddle. The Bermuda Festival production takes an entertaining trek through 350 years of Shakespearean acting in America.