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I think I like Taichman's production of Twelfth Night precisely because it doesn't take the love stories seriously. It takes Antonio/Sebastian more seriously than it takes Olivia/Cesario - and with good reason. While we don't see it, Antonio has known Sebastian for a longer time and more intimately than Olivia has known Cesario - Olivia is latching onto a pretty teenage boy, while Antonio is risking his life to help out his friend. Taichman also takes Orsino/Viola more seriously than Olivia/Cesario - again, a more intimate connection, to the point that Orsino is falling for Cesario even as he's confused by the nature of his affection for the "boy". Olivia's part isn't a serious love story and I have a lot of fun with Taichman taking full advantage of the ludicrousness of it.
Somehow I didn't blog about this production the first time around, but it was fantastic. I love the over-the-top romantic imagery of roses and falling petals that Marks finds trite - I think they look absolutely gorgeous, and I particularly like the imagery that everyone gets deep red rose petals except for Malvolio, who has yellow petals either because the "love" never rises to passion (and therefore yellow roses for friendship) or because the "love" is sickly and cankered because it is engendered through lies, while everyone else's passion is true. (and I do use "passion" deliberately - it's very much sexual passion that is on display here.) I also appreciate the tangoing couples that he hates, partly because they are an entertaining means of asserting that she intends Antonio/Sebastian to be canon.
As for cast, Floyd King and Nancy Robinette are back as Feste and Maria, as is Fred Shiffman as Fabian and the inimitable Tom Story as Sir Andrew Aguecheek. The Malvolio-mocking scenes would be so very different without them that I'm not sure this production of the play could be done. The combination of Tom's effeminate physical comedy and Nancy's straightforward, common, and sexual Maria really make these scenes, and Floyd has that ability to turn on a time from comedy to tragedy that makes Feste the speaker (and singer) of real truth. Chuck Cooper coming in as Sir Toby Belch is a perfect fit with this crew - absolutely adore him. Philip Goodwin I find less sympathetic a Malvolio than Ted van Griethuysen was. In large part, this is a difference literally in vocal quality: I could listen to Ted recite verse all night, but Philip has a character voice that is sort of grating in tone. Ideal for particular characters, and gives Malvolio a certain quality (I think the notable comparison is that I last saw Goodwin in The Seafarer as Satan, to whom music is a painful noise), but that quality puts one fully on the side of the jokers out to destroy him and gives no sympathy at the end when they have broken him. With Ted, you saw the folly of their joke in the end, which makes for a deeper ending, but I don't necessarily say that that's on the whole better, just different.
In part I won't say one production is better than the other because I simply adore the replacement leads. Samantha Soule as Viola was adorable, but I think I actually like Christina Pumariega better. Honestly, I don't remember Sam barking like a dog at Sir Andrew and it was freaking hilarious and awesome - Christina's Viola is, at least when it comes to speech, as ready to give as she is to take. She can hold her own with the male characters if it is a verbal spat. (she's also a decent physical match with Randy Harrison as Sebastian.) I know that in a way, as much as I love Chris Innvar, I prefer Gregory Woodell. I adore Chris, but he's kind of a magnificent bastard, really - he is somehow a not-handsome man who is very attractive when playing a total dickwad. Which is why he was both brilliant and wrong in Waste: he was required to repent, in a way, for being a dick. Chris should not repent for being a dick. But that definitely gives Orsino a different quality, while a more traditionally attractive actor like Greg (who I last saw as Christian in Cyrano de Bergerac) is more sympathetic in the role. When Greg's Orsino is a douche, it is an accident, something to be apologised for. And I'm certain I prefer Sarah Agnew over Veanne Cox. I enjoyed Veanne's performance, but I find her voice to be both sort of annoying in a character-type and also rather mannered - the conjunction is grating after a while. Agnew is very much of a physical type with Cox, but I can listen to her voice all night without eventually cringing, she works the slapstick very well, and I will always love the reaction Taichman solicits from Olivia when she discovers that she just bedded and married the man she wasn't courting, but that's ok because OMG TWINS!
I love that this production is all about the comedy, including the comedy of libidos rather than comedy of relationships. These people don't know each other well enough to be a comedy of relationships for the most part - you've got a stronger basis for marriage between Maria and Toby than you do among the leads - and I think it's nice to have a comedy of libidos (I think I'm seeing Midsummer Night's Dream as the comedy of relationships as the obvious direct contrast, but I also think I'm comparing specific productions rather than any stable textual interpretation - also, my exposure to Shakespeare has been fairly small and nearly exclusively through performance, so I don't actually know a lot of the plays). I think it's a perfect production for Free for All - Taichman's past two productions for Shakespeare have been brilliant for Free for All in that they strongly emphasise elements in the plays that are immediately relevant to our world yet also have tons of silliness. Bright costumes and sets, large amounts of silliness, and an obvious overarching theme that works I think are all helpful if Free for All is for an audience that sees little Shakespeare in the course of the year.
Though I do hope they do Henry V next year - it was epic, easy to follow, had comic moments that I think will go over well with a broad audience, and I loved what they did with the chorus. (I <3 David Muse.) I suspect the comedies go over better in general, but I have no idea, really, and since As You Like It was a total mess, the production they should pull from last season ought to be Henry V.
Anyway, Peter Marks, Shakespeare is hardly the place to complain about fart jokes, so what was up your ass when you reviewed this? (I see his point in parts that it isn't his cup of tea, but picking on fart jokes among the highly comic servant characters in Shakespeare rubs me the wrong way. I must be a groundling at heart because I thought that our first view of Fred Shiffman being passed out on a table, the only sign of life when he breaks wind, was hilarious in context.) I'm glad I'm seeing it again next week because I thought it was that awesome.
Somehow I didn't blog about this production the first time around, but it was fantastic. I love the over-the-top romantic imagery of roses and falling petals that Marks finds trite - I think they look absolutely gorgeous, and I particularly like the imagery that everyone gets deep red rose petals except for Malvolio, who has yellow petals either because the "love" never rises to passion (and therefore yellow roses for friendship) or because the "love" is sickly and cankered because it is engendered through lies, while everyone else's passion is true. (and I do use "passion" deliberately - it's very much sexual passion that is on display here.) I also appreciate the tangoing couples that he hates, partly because they are an entertaining means of asserting that she intends Antonio/Sebastian to be canon.
As for cast, Floyd King and Nancy Robinette are back as Feste and Maria, as is Fred Shiffman as Fabian and the inimitable Tom Story as Sir Andrew Aguecheek. The Malvolio-mocking scenes would be so very different without them that I'm not sure this production of the play could be done. The combination of Tom's effeminate physical comedy and Nancy's straightforward, common, and sexual Maria really make these scenes, and Floyd has that ability to turn on a time from comedy to tragedy that makes Feste the speaker (and singer) of real truth. Chuck Cooper coming in as Sir Toby Belch is a perfect fit with this crew - absolutely adore him. Philip Goodwin I find less sympathetic a Malvolio than Ted van Griethuysen was. In large part, this is a difference literally in vocal quality: I could listen to Ted recite verse all night, but Philip has a character voice that is sort of grating in tone. Ideal for particular characters, and gives Malvolio a certain quality (I think the notable comparison is that I last saw Goodwin in The Seafarer as Satan, to whom music is a painful noise), but that quality puts one fully on the side of the jokers out to destroy him and gives no sympathy at the end when they have broken him. With Ted, you saw the folly of their joke in the end, which makes for a deeper ending, but I don't necessarily say that that's on the whole better, just different.
In part I won't say one production is better than the other because I simply adore the replacement leads. Samantha Soule as Viola was adorable, but I think I actually like Christina Pumariega better. Honestly, I don't remember Sam barking like a dog at Sir Andrew and it was freaking hilarious and awesome - Christina's Viola is, at least when it comes to speech, as ready to give as she is to take. She can hold her own with the male characters if it is a verbal spat. (she's also a decent physical match with Randy Harrison as Sebastian.) I know that in a way, as much as I love Chris Innvar, I prefer Gregory Woodell. I adore Chris, but he's kind of a magnificent bastard, really - he is somehow a not-handsome man who is very attractive when playing a total dickwad. Which is why he was both brilliant and wrong in Waste: he was required to repent, in a way, for being a dick. Chris should not repent for being a dick. But that definitely gives Orsino a different quality, while a more traditionally attractive actor like Greg (who I last saw as Christian in Cyrano de Bergerac) is more sympathetic in the role. When Greg's Orsino is a douche, it is an accident, something to be apologised for. And I'm certain I prefer Sarah Agnew over Veanne Cox. I enjoyed Veanne's performance, but I find her voice to be both sort of annoying in a character-type and also rather mannered - the conjunction is grating after a while. Agnew is very much of a physical type with Cox, but I can listen to her voice all night without eventually cringing, she works the slapstick very well, and I will always love the reaction Taichman solicits from Olivia when she discovers that she just bedded and married the man she wasn't courting, but that's ok because OMG TWINS!
I love that this production is all about the comedy, including the comedy of libidos rather than comedy of relationships. These people don't know each other well enough to be a comedy of relationships for the most part - you've got a stronger basis for marriage between Maria and Toby than you do among the leads - and I think it's nice to have a comedy of libidos (I think I'm seeing Midsummer Night's Dream as the comedy of relationships as the obvious direct contrast, but I also think I'm comparing specific productions rather than any stable textual interpretation - also, my exposure to Shakespeare has been fairly small and nearly exclusively through performance, so I don't actually know a lot of the plays). I think it's a perfect production for Free for All - Taichman's past two productions for Shakespeare have been brilliant for Free for All in that they strongly emphasise elements in the plays that are immediately relevant to our world yet also have tons of silliness. Bright costumes and sets, large amounts of silliness, and an obvious overarching theme that works I think are all helpful if Free for All is for an audience that sees little Shakespeare in the course of the year.
Though I do hope they do Henry V next year - it was epic, easy to follow, had comic moments that I think will go over well with a broad audience, and I loved what they did with the chorus. (I <3 David Muse.) I suspect the comedies go over better in general, but I have no idea, really, and since As You Like It was a total mess, the production they should pull from last season ought to be Henry V.
Anyway, Peter Marks, Shakespeare is hardly the place to complain about fart jokes, so what was up your ass when you reviewed this? (I see his point in parts that it isn't his cup of tea, but picking on fart jokes among the highly comic servant characters in Shakespeare rubs me the wrong way. I must be a groundling at heart because I thought that our first view of Fred Shiffman being passed out on a table, the only sign of life when he breaks wind, was hilarious in context.) I'm glad I'm seeing it again next week because I thought it was that awesome.