Washington’s vaunted Shakespeare Theatre Company kicks off its 2010-2011 season with a colorful performance of the Bard’s Twelfth Night, a comedic classic about a set of twins who find love after being shipwrecked on the island of Illyria. (Thanks to Target, theater lovers strapped by hard times can get free tickets with the program’s popular Free for All through September 5th.)
Under the direction of the STC’s Alan Paul, the familiar play’s passion and romance are infused with some much needed freshness through a unique set design and subtle script deviations.
In case you need a quick recap of the basics of the plot:
Viola and Sebastian are twins shipwrecked on the Island of Illyria. Viola assumes Sebastian has drowned overboard after finding a trunk of his clothes washed up on shore. She hatches a plan to don his clothes and refashion herself as a man (Cesario) to get a job in the court of Duke Orsino.
The Duke is desperately in love with Countess Olivia and commissions Cesario to act as his emissary, but Olivia quickly falls for Cesario while Cesario/Viola has taken a keen shine to the Duke…
Christina Pumariega (Cesario/Viola) shines in her duality, deftly mastering the warring male and female elements of her role, but the true scene stealers are the peripheral characters, most notably, Chuck Cooper as a drunkenly charming Sir Toby Belch and his slap-stick sidekick Sir Andrew Aguecheek, played to the hilt by Tom Story.
Aside from the glittering performances, lovers of Shakespeare for romance sake won’t be disappointed by the set design which features a red rose backdrop and a constant sprinkling of rose petals throughout the show.
The costume designer also makes good use of the color red to complement the floral motif, yet makes unseemly frock selections for the glamorous Countess Olivia, convincingly portrayed by the lovely Sarah Agnew. (She seems to change dresses for every scene, yet… is that the same strapless gown in different colors!?)
Overall, Twelfth Night is a very exciting start to a varied season including other Shakespeare classics like The Merchant of Venice and All’s Well that Ends Well. The company also plans to produce Oscar Wilde’s witty An Ideal Husband and Candide’s Voltaire. For more information about these productions and the STC’s lottery system, check out www.Shakespearetheatre.org
(Images: Top – Samantha Soule as Viola and Floyd King as Feste in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s 2008 production of Twelfth Night, directed by Rebecca Bayla Taichman. Photo by Carol Rosegg. Bottom – Peter Katona as Sebastian and Veanne Cox as Olivia in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s 2008 production of Twelfth Night, directed by Rebecca Bayla Taichman. Photo by Carol Rosegg.)
*Special report by Art& Theater Reviewer Stephanie Green
