Twelfth Night
Mar. 24th, 2008 10:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiWe (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shadesong, Elayna, feste_sylvain, and his older daughter) hit the MIT production of Twelfth Night on Saturday night. This was only the second live production I've seen, but since the first was this production, I used slightly lower standards for a student production.
Which isn't to say I have may complaints. The cast was uniformly wonderful, with Nori Pritchard's Viola, in particular, shining. The majority of the roles were played by women, with only Toby, Feste, Valentine (and the priest -- same actor) and Orsino played by men. This choice worked nicely, especially since they did a splendid job of casting a Sebastian who looked decently like Viola, but different enough to not confuse, say, small children in the audience.
One thing that all of the actors accomplished nicely was the use of comedic facial expressions. The director (Kortney Adams) and cast pulled a lot of extra comedy out of small details here, and they did a great job of ensuring that minor characters (the assorted servants, musicians, gentlewomen, etc) told minor stories of their own (showing resentment at their bosses, bafflement at the actions of Malvolio, etc).
The staging was minimal, which was fine, other than in a few scenes that featured lead characters sitting or lying on the ground, making it impossible for even adults beyond the fourth row to see the action. The only other flaw was the use of live musicians who were, frankly, too loud during some scenes with dialogue.
Elayna had a blast, and had no problem following the story (which does move a little quicker, with more disguises, than Much Ado or As You Like It, the other Bard plays she's seen*). A damned fine performance, and one I'm glad we caught.
*Both movie versions, though, which also likely made them more accessible).
shadesong, Elayna, feste_sylvain, and his older daughter) hit the MIT production of Twelfth Night on Saturday night. This was only the second live production I've seen, but since the first was this production, I used slightly lower standards for a student production.Which isn't to say I have may complaints. The cast was uniformly wonderful, with Nori Pritchard's Viola, in particular, shining. The majority of the roles were played by women, with only Toby, Feste, Valentine (and the priest -- same actor) and Orsino played by men. This choice worked nicely, especially since they did a splendid job of casting a Sebastian who looked decently like Viola, but different enough to not confuse, say, small children in the audience.
One thing that all of the actors accomplished nicely was the use of comedic facial expressions. The director (Kortney Adams) and cast pulled a lot of extra comedy out of small details here, and they did a great job of ensuring that minor characters (the assorted servants, musicians, gentlewomen, etc) told minor stories of their own (showing resentment at their bosses, bafflement at the actions of Malvolio, etc).
The staging was minimal, which was fine, other than in a few scenes that featured lead characters sitting or lying on the ground, making it impossible for even adults beyond the fourth row to see the action. The only other flaw was the use of live musicians who were, frankly, too loud during some scenes with dialogue.
Elayna had a blast, and had no problem following the story (which does move a little quicker, with more disguises, than Much Ado or As You Like It, the other Bard plays she's seen*). A damned fine performance, and one I'm glad we caught.
*Both movie versions, though, which also likely made them more accessible).
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Date: 2008-03-24 04:32 pm (UTC)The only other comment I'd bother to add would be that the characterization of Feste was neither of the usual interpretations (mad-cap jester or melancholy), but rather that of rock-star heart-throb.
(But I tend to focus on Feste, for some reason.)