Twelfth Night!
Oct. 13th, 2008 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elabyOh, you've got to be kidding me. I have an earache. I'm twenty-five! Shouldn't I be exempt from earaches?
I'm going to the doctor tomorrow morning and hopefully they'll give me antibiotics or something. I commiserate with cranky toddlers, though :\
On Saturday night, for our anniversary,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
caitirin and I saw Twelfth Night at the Seacoast Rep. It was DELIGHTFUL. The theatre is so intimate and small, and we had very front row (on the stage*, even!) seats. I usually feel kind of weird about being that close, but this time it didn't bother me at all.
Viola - The girl who played Viola was a comic genius. At first, I was somewhat dubious, because she was a bit too "Oh, WOOT, Illyria! My brother's dead, but YAY ORSINO'S COURT!" She was so, so funny, though, and she nailed everything. I feel like a vital characteristic of a good Shakespearean actor is that they can speak the lines in such a way that even if I don't really understand the words, I still understand the meaning, and she was fantastic at that. She was just hilarious.
Orsino/Sir Toby - Oh, yes, did I mention that there was a great deal of doubling up in the casting? It was awesome XD This guy was really funny too, and played up the "I am oh so angsty and woeful!" dorkitude of Orsino. It was also very hard to tell between his Orsino and his Sir Toby. He had different mannerisms and everything.
Olivia - She was quite good too, and very pretty. She was played entirely for laughs - I'm used to Helena Bonham Carter's Olivia, whose grief for her brother is serious - which kind of weirded me out a tiny bit, but she was still very good. She also played love-struck very well. However, her delivery of "Most wonderful!" didn't compare to that of the Olivia in the Mask and Dagger production at UNH a few years ago** XD Sadly!
Feste/Antonio - Another doubled up part. It was easy to see he was the same guy, and he played Feste on the borderline of stupid, but occasionally you'd get a glimpse of Feste's all-knowing awesomeness. Everybody can't be Ben Kingsley. He was also very good as Antonio, nice and grabby (XD) and indignant and wounded. Though I could have kicked myself for missing him storming offstage after Sebastian happily paired up with Olivia. He had to change into his Feste clothes, after all, but I would have loved to see his expression. Oh! And he also could sing very well! I liked his version of "Oh, Mistress Mine" quite a bit.
Maria - Best. Maria. EVER. She was absolutely hysterical, had the most wonderful expressions, had comic timing down to an art, and she was adorable to boot. I just loved her.
Sebastian - He was very cute at the beginning, all lost and sad, and he switched very well into adolescent-boy "Holy crap, this woman has the hots for me and I don't even know who she is! But she's sexy, so I'll just run with it!" Silly Sebastian.
Malvolio - The actor who played Malvolio also did a very good job. He edged the "ohgod, this is going to end horribly" occasionally, but mostly he was played for laughs. He did have a few parts where you felt honestly bad for him, but it obviously wasn't supposed to distract you from teh funny.
That's really something that differed in this version versus the UNH one - at UNH, they really took advantage of the fact that aspects of this play can make you feel sick at times. The Seacoast Rep version was very much a traditional interpretation (complete with puffy pants!) and didn't delve into that feeling that all was not really so well that ended well.
*The stage isn't really raised; there's stadium seating and then a row of seats at the bottom, and then a bit of stage on the level of the seats and a couple of step-levels more of stage.
**The line is, classically, supposed to mean something like "How amazing!" That's how it was performed in this production (and in the movie). In the UNH production, Olivia delivered it like "OH HELL YES." *giggle*
I'm going to the doctor tomorrow morning and hopefully they'll give me antibiotics or something. I commiserate with cranky toddlers, though :\
On Saturday night, for our anniversary,
caitirin and I saw Twelfth Night at the Seacoast Rep. It was DELIGHTFUL. The theatre is so intimate and small, and we had very front row (on the stage*, even!) seats. I usually feel kind of weird about being that close, but this time it didn't bother me at all.Viola - The girl who played Viola was a comic genius. At first, I was somewhat dubious, because she was a bit too "Oh, WOOT, Illyria! My brother's dead, but YAY ORSINO'S COURT!" She was so, so funny, though, and she nailed everything. I feel like a vital characteristic of a good Shakespearean actor is that they can speak the lines in such a way that even if I don't really understand the words, I still understand the meaning, and she was fantastic at that. She was just hilarious.
Orsino/Sir Toby - Oh, yes, did I mention that there was a great deal of doubling up in the casting? It was awesome XD This guy was really funny too, and played up the "I am oh so angsty and woeful!" dorkitude of Orsino. It was also very hard to tell between his Orsino and his Sir Toby. He had different mannerisms and everything.
Olivia - She was quite good too, and very pretty. She was played entirely for laughs - I'm used to Helena Bonham Carter's Olivia, whose grief for her brother is serious - which kind of weirded me out a tiny bit, but she was still very good. She also played love-struck very well. However, her delivery of "Most wonderful!" didn't compare to that of the Olivia in the Mask and Dagger production at UNH a few years ago** XD Sadly!
Feste/Antonio - Another doubled up part. It was easy to see he was the same guy, and he played Feste on the borderline of stupid, but occasionally you'd get a glimpse of Feste's all-knowing awesomeness. Everybody can't be Ben Kingsley. He was also very good as Antonio, nice and grabby (XD) and indignant and wounded. Though I could have kicked myself for missing him storming offstage after Sebastian happily paired up with Olivia. He had to change into his Feste clothes, after all, but I would have loved to see his expression. Oh! And he also could sing very well! I liked his version of "Oh, Mistress Mine" quite a bit.
Maria - Best. Maria. EVER. She was absolutely hysterical, had the most wonderful expressions, had comic timing down to an art, and she was adorable to boot. I just loved her.
Sebastian - He was very cute at the beginning, all lost and sad, and he switched very well into adolescent-boy "Holy crap, this woman has the hots for me and I don't even know who she is! But she's sexy, so I'll just run with it!" Silly Sebastian.
Malvolio - The actor who played Malvolio also did a very good job. He edged the "ohgod, this is going to end horribly" occasionally, but mostly he was played for laughs. He did have a few parts where you felt honestly bad for him, but it obviously wasn't supposed to distract you from teh funny.
That's really something that differed in this version versus the UNH one - at UNH, they really took advantage of the fact that aspects of this play can make you feel sick at times. The Seacoast Rep version was very much a traditional interpretation (complete with puffy pants!) and didn't delve into that feeling that all was not really so well that ended well.
*The stage isn't really raised; there's stadium seating and then a row of seats at the bottom, and then a bit of stage on the level of the seats and a couple of step-levels more of stage.
**The line is, classically, supposed to mean something like "How amazing!" That's how it was performed in this production (and in the movie). In the UNH production, Olivia delivered it like "OH HELL YES." *giggle*
