TWELFTH NIGHT or ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE IN THE "SUMMER OF LOVE"
TWELFTH NIGHT, or ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE: Adapted and directed by Lesley and Robert Currier from Shakespeare. Marin Shakespeare Company. Forest Meadows Amphitheatre,
TWELFTH NIGHT, or ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE A FRATERNITY HI-JINKS SHOW BY MARIN SHAKES
If there is one Shakespeare play that begs parody, it is Twelfth Night, and the Marin Shakespeare Company’s adaptation/version makes every effort to impress with the second show of their three-production season being a rock and roll parody of that play. If you want Shakespeare, you will have to wait until Julius Caesar hits the boards. Nevertheless, if you want an over-the-top summer of love, flower power laugh and a giggle go to see All You Need is Love at Forest Meadows amphitheatre. It is perfect show for the family. Bring your own picnic or purchase snacks at the Theatre Café.
In their decision to adapt Twelfth Night Lesley and Robert Currier possibly took a hint from Shakespeare’s sub-title “What You Will” and from the opening lines: “If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it,. . .” And there certainly is as an excess. It is a comedy with unrealistic, hilarious plot and sub plots involving fraternal twins, mistaken identity, off-wall characters and an outrageous jester. The directors ask us to suspend belief to a point of the ridiculous . . . and it sort of works. The set is plastered with symbols of the hippie-rock-an-roll era and a complete set of drums and symbols on stage.
Before the story begins, Desiree Valentine (Charlene Eldon) and The Valentines ( Sheila Devitt, Emily Parker Hock, Caroline Servat) dressed in fluffy red outfits flounce out to serenade us with “My Heart Is Crying” before Count Orsino (William Elsman ) sashays down the stairs in a flamboyant, I think purple, Nehru type costume to deliver the fateful line “If Love etc. etc..” Most of the music is canned and Billie Cox is to be congratulated for the sound/song design that fit into the plot just as jigsaw puzzle pieces do to complete the whole picture.
The story centers around mistaken identity starting with the proverbial Shakespearean shipwreck with twins Viola (Alexandra Matthew) and Sebastian (Alex Curtis) separated, but both alive. Viola is washed up on the shores of
In Lady Olivia’s household we meet her drunken, carousing uncle Sir Toby Belch (Robert Currier), his rich addle-brained friend Squire Sir Andrew Aguecheek (cross dressed Camilla Ford), a maid Maria (Shanon Veon Kase) in love with Toby, Malvolio (Jack Powell), a malevolent steward to Olivia and the always pervasive jester Feste (Lucas McClure). To punish Malvolio, Toby, Aguecheek, Maria and Feste hatch up a fantastic charade causing Malvolio to think that Olivia is in love with him. The charade leads to Malvolio wearing yellow cross-gartered stockings and he eventually ends up in the dungeon for the insane.
The turmoil that the directors create is much too much. The garish costumes (Abra Berman) are befitting a burlesque farce but seem appropriate considering that the Curriers have turned the comedy into an improbable farce complete with excessive physical humor often depending on creating laughs from the cross-dressing cast. That being said, the persuading of the pompous steward Malvolio that he is the beloved by Lady Olivia is one of the funniest scenes in Shakespeare. Jack Powell nails the part and will probably win a
The major roles by popular Marin Shakes favorites, William Elsman, Viola Alexandra, Terry Rucker, Robert Currier, Shanon Veon Kase, Camilla Ford and Cat Thompson give their usual professional performances. Lucas McClure in the role of Feste seems uncomfortable in the part. It is the inclusion of bits and snatches of the music of the summer of love that receives approval from the audience who gave the show semi-standing ovation.
Kedar K Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.TheatreWorldInternetMagazine.com