Twelfth Night! or Hungry like the Wolf
It's Shakespeare in the Park season! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Tonight we went to see Twelfth Night with a ton of people from work (and Susan). It was fan-frickin-tastic. It might be the best show we've seen via Shakespeare in the Park. I don't know when I last laughed so hard.
So, how do you improve on the already winning combination of Free Shakespeare, stormy weather (heigh ho, the wind and the rain), and fireflies? DANCE PARTY. I am now of the opinion that all Shakespeare performances should include a dance party. Heck, everything should include a dance party. Dance Party Ending is a trope for a reason guys. And this Twelfth Night had a Dance Party Ending. AND IT WAS AWESOME.
They set the show in the 1980s - in fact, the whole stage was a giant tape cassette. More effective than you would think. Temporal displacement of Shakespeare plays can work better or worse. In this case it worked PERFECTLY. It was utterly flawless. The over-the-top superficiality of the 80s was a perfect fit for the fundamental ridiculousness of the aristocracy that turns up in Shakespeare comedies, and made for the funniest Sir Toby Belch EVER, in his Magnum P.I. shirt. And leisure suits and tennis outfits and star-shaped sunglasses - it was just fantastic.
Feste was gender swapped and utterly lovely. It didn't make a shred of difference to the script - I feel like Fools are fundamentally gender neutral. But she had a gorgeous voice, and a number of songs. She rapped, she sang "Footloose" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart" but with text substituted from the script. Which oh my god. And her closing song, "the wind and the rain," was played almost entirely straight - and was gorgeous. She was the one with the star shaped blue sunglasses. But I about lost it at "Total Eclipse of the Heart," especially since other dude (Orsino's other servant, no idea that character's name) started it off on Electric Guitar. And she opens the play by holding a Boom Box above her head, while Orsino says "if music be the food of love, play on." Utterly utterly perfect. (When we first meet Orsino he's bumming around in a stunning white bathrobe. It's pretty great.)
Viola/Caesario was just an incredibly good actor. She is the star of the show, and pretty much the straight man. They used audience participation for the storm and shipwreck, getting four people to hold strips of cloth to make the ocean, another kid do bang trashcan lids together to make crashes of thunder, and the rest of us made "whoooshhhh" and "krshhhhhhh" sounds (all directed by Feste, of course). And, of course, immediately prior to the shipwreck, Viola and Sebastian seem to be having a dance party of their own. There was so much dance party in this show. It was wonderful. And Viola was really really excellent.
The same actor played both sea captains - the captain of the ship, who comes to shore with Viola, and Antonio, the Certainly-Not-A-Pirate, who rescues Sebastian. And he played them completely differently, but absolutely chewing the scenery in both cases. Viola's captain was absolutely flamingly gay, and just lovely - conspiratorial and enthusiastic about everything. But Antonio - oh dear lord Antonio. Now, you can play Antonio straight, in which case you kind of start to wonder a bit at his attachment to Sebastian, and it can get kinda sappy. Or you can make him absolutely ridiculous. That particular actor has hugely long arms and used them to great effect, usually flinging them absolutely as wide as they would go. He had some kind of accent which was hard for me to identify (sometimes it seemed russian, at other times french) - so, basically Centauri. Thick Centauri accent, hugely long arms, a mop of floppy yellow hair, and crazy eyes. Seriously, man, leave some of that scenery for Malvolio! And the guy who IDs him had that same Centauri accent, and did this awesome slow clap thing once he got going about Sebastian's perfidy. It really gave the sensation that the two of them were involved in their own weird spy vs. spy plot that really had nothing to do with any of the rest of the play. And his huge gesticulations and weirdly intense delivery made Antonio come off as this kind of weird creepy guy, and, if anything, made his attachment to Sebastian a lot more believable.
Sir Andrew was the same guy who had played Chalk in the previous play, King Arthur and the Sword of Britain. That play was their in-house swashbuckling piece and really wasn't, well, good. It was an absolute hoot (and wonderfully full of Sir Gawain), but the absolute best things about it were Chalk, a throwaway character of a fairy who absolutely stole the show, and Red Robin, another very puck-like fairy character and the villain of the piece. And Red Robin played Fabian in this show. So, Fabian may actually have been my single favorite thing in the entire show. So, Sir Andrew writes a letter challenging Caesario to a duel to win the hand of the fair Olivia. This letter is execrable. But in a wonderful sight gag, he also makes the letter in the shape of one of those middleschool finger-puzzles. You know those things with the four points and you open one of them for a message? Yeah. Hehehehe. Awesome. Sir Toby wisely decides he can't possibly deliver it, and hands it off to Fabian. Who eats it. YEP. He just sits there and eats it. And you think "heh, it's so bad a letter he has to destroy the evidence." And then you forget about it. Later on, though, after (or perhaps during?) the fight with Caesario and/or Sebastian, Sir Andrew (who also has asthma) has to retire to a corner to breathe into a paper bag for a while. Sir Toby calms him down and he hands the paper bag off to Fabian. Who eats it. It's like he decided he really liked the taste of paper after that first letter. And then, because everything must be repeated three times, when Malvolio produces Maria's faked letter from Olivia, Fabian gets ahold of it and eats it too! Fabian just spends the whole play eating paper! And it managed to get funnier each time.
Malvolio was wonderful. His "yellow stockings cross-gartered" outfit was wonderfully grotesque. He's way too straight laced to be super 80s with the pink hair and all - but in the scene where he finds the letter he's in full jogging get-up with all sorts of fitness gear and such. Again, an absolute perfect use of the 80s theme.
I should say a thing or two about the music. So, Susan joined us for the show, and a handful of people from CoSI. Susan made lavender honey baklava, we made brownies, and Ashley made cake (and turned up an hour into the show, ah well). So I spent the entire show eating delicious desserts and rocking out to 80s music. They used it in text (I mentioned the rewrite of "Total Eclipse of the Heart"), as incidental music (when Sir Andrew goes off to fight Caesario, they play "Eye of the Tiger" and it's completely epic), and all through intermission. And yes, they played "Hungry Like the Wolf." And yes, we all stood up and danced and it was just about the best thing ever. And they ran the bows as a triple wedding and dance party. DANCE PARTY ENDING FTW.
It's getting late, but the short version is, I absolutely loved it. Definitely going to go see it again. Possibly more than once. Hooray for Shakespeare in the Park. ARCHIBRAVO YOU GUYS. Archibravo indeed.
So, how do you improve on the already winning combination of Free Shakespeare, stormy weather (heigh ho, the wind and the rain), and fireflies? DANCE PARTY. I am now of the opinion that all Shakespeare performances should include a dance party. Heck, everything should include a dance party. Dance Party Ending is a trope for a reason guys. And this Twelfth Night had a Dance Party Ending. AND IT WAS AWESOME.
They set the show in the 1980s - in fact, the whole stage was a giant tape cassette. More effective than you would think. Temporal displacement of Shakespeare plays can work better or worse. In this case it worked PERFECTLY. It was utterly flawless. The over-the-top superficiality of the 80s was a perfect fit for the fundamental ridiculousness of the aristocracy that turns up in Shakespeare comedies, and made for the funniest Sir Toby Belch EVER, in his Magnum P.I. shirt. And leisure suits and tennis outfits and star-shaped sunglasses - it was just fantastic.
Feste was gender swapped and utterly lovely. It didn't make a shred of difference to the script - I feel like Fools are fundamentally gender neutral. But she had a gorgeous voice, and a number of songs. She rapped, she sang "Footloose" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart" but with text substituted from the script. Which oh my god. And her closing song, "the wind and the rain," was played almost entirely straight - and was gorgeous. She was the one with the star shaped blue sunglasses. But I about lost it at "Total Eclipse of the Heart," especially since other dude (Orsino's other servant, no idea that character's name) started it off on Electric Guitar. And she opens the play by holding a Boom Box above her head, while Orsino says "if music be the food of love, play on." Utterly utterly perfect. (When we first meet Orsino he's bumming around in a stunning white bathrobe. It's pretty great.)
Viola/Caesario was just an incredibly good actor. She is the star of the show, and pretty much the straight man. They used audience participation for the storm and shipwreck, getting four people to hold strips of cloth to make the ocean, another kid do bang trashcan lids together to make crashes of thunder, and the rest of us made "whoooshhhh" and "krshhhhhhh" sounds (all directed by Feste, of course). And, of course, immediately prior to the shipwreck, Viola and Sebastian seem to be having a dance party of their own. There was so much dance party in this show. It was wonderful. And Viola was really really excellent.
The same actor played both sea captains - the captain of the ship, who comes to shore with Viola, and Antonio, the Certainly-Not-A-Pirate, who rescues Sebastian. And he played them completely differently, but absolutely chewing the scenery in both cases. Viola's captain was absolutely flamingly gay, and just lovely - conspiratorial and enthusiastic about everything. But Antonio - oh dear lord Antonio. Now, you can play Antonio straight, in which case you kind of start to wonder a bit at his attachment to Sebastian, and it can get kinda sappy. Or you can make him absolutely ridiculous. That particular actor has hugely long arms and used them to great effect, usually flinging them absolutely as wide as they would go. He had some kind of accent which was hard for me to identify (sometimes it seemed russian, at other times french) - so, basically Centauri. Thick Centauri accent, hugely long arms, a mop of floppy yellow hair, and crazy eyes. Seriously, man, leave some of that scenery for Malvolio! And the guy who IDs him had that same Centauri accent, and did this awesome slow clap thing once he got going about Sebastian's perfidy. It really gave the sensation that the two of them were involved in their own weird spy vs. spy plot that really had nothing to do with any of the rest of the play. And his huge gesticulations and weirdly intense delivery made Antonio come off as this kind of weird creepy guy, and, if anything, made his attachment to Sebastian a lot more believable.
Sir Andrew was the same guy who had played Chalk in the previous play, King Arthur and the Sword of Britain. That play was their in-house swashbuckling piece and really wasn't, well, good. It was an absolute hoot (and wonderfully full of Sir Gawain), but the absolute best things about it were Chalk, a throwaway character of a fairy who absolutely stole the show, and Red Robin, another very puck-like fairy character and the villain of the piece. And Red Robin played Fabian in this show. So, Fabian may actually have been my single favorite thing in the entire show. So, Sir Andrew writes a letter challenging Caesario to a duel to win the hand of the fair Olivia. This letter is execrable. But in a wonderful sight gag, he also makes the letter in the shape of one of those middleschool finger-puzzles. You know those things with the four points and you open one of them for a message? Yeah. Hehehehe. Awesome. Sir Toby wisely decides he can't possibly deliver it, and hands it off to Fabian. Who eats it. YEP. He just sits there and eats it. And you think "heh, it's so bad a letter he has to destroy the evidence." And then you forget about it. Later on, though, after (or perhaps during?) the fight with Caesario and/or Sebastian, Sir Andrew (who also has asthma) has to retire to a corner to breathe into a paper bag for a while. Sir Toby calms him down and he hands the paper bag off to Fabian. Who eats it. It's like he decided he really liked the taste of paper after that first letter. And then, because everything must be repeated three times, when Malvolio produces Maria's faked letter from Olivia, Fabian gets ahold of it and eats it too! Fabian just spends the whole play eating paper! And it managed to get funnier each time.
Malvolio was wonderful. His "yellow stockings cross-gartered" outfit was wonderfully grotesque. He's way too straight laced to be super 80s with the pink hair and all - but in the scene where he finds the letter he's in full jogging get-up with all sorts of fitness gear and such. Again, an absolute perfect use of the 80s theme.
I should say a thing or two about the music. So, Susan joined us for the show, and a handful of people from CoSI. Susan made lavender honey baklava, we made brownies, and Ashley made cake (and turned up an hour into the show, ah well). So I spent the entire show eating delicious desserts and rocking out to 80s music. They used it in text (I mentioned the rewrite of "Total Eclipse of the Heart"), as incidental music (when Sir Andrew goes off to fight Caesario, they play "Eye of the Tiger" and it's completely epic), and all through intermission. And yes, they played "Hungry Like the Wolf." And yes, we all stood up and danced and it was just about the best thing ever. And they ran the bows as a triple wedding and dance party. DANCE PARTY ENDING FTW.
It's getting late, but the short version is, I absolutely loved it. Definitely going to go see it again. Possibly more than once. Hooray for Shakespeare in the Park. ARCHIBRAVO YOU GUYS. Archibravo indeed.