Romance and romp: Two nights of Twelfth Night
Theatre Erindale’s two productions of Twelfth Night may differ in their emphasis on the frivolous or poignant dimensions of Shakespeare’s tragicomedy, but they coincide in being captivatingly entertaining adaptations of the play.
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night balances two distinct dimensions of elegiac somberness and overt festivity—elements that Theatre Erindale’s two casts emphasize differently. Cast A (Cameron Grant)’s exuberant and lively adaptation is more akin to the modern romantic comedy, while Cast 1 (David Matheson) focuses more on the play’s poignancy and melancholic undertones, staying closer to the tragicomic essence of Shakespeare’s original vision.
The original un-adapted play, broadly speaking, is structured around a series of romantic entanglements sprung from a gender disguise and mistaken identities. Following a shipwreck undergone by twins Sebastian and Viola, the latter disguises herself as a young man, “Cesario,” to protect herself in the foreign land of Illyria. When “Cesario” enters the service of Duke Orsino to help him woo Lady Olivia, a complex love triangle ensues: Olivia falls for Cesario (unaware of Viola’s disguise), while Viola (still disguised as Cesario) falls in love with Orsino. Alongside the romances is a subplot of pranking and revenge, led by Sir Toby and his cohort, against Olivia’s obsequious steward, Malvolio.
Cast A’s performance featured ample horseplay, amusing vignettes, dramatizing unreciprocated advances, and a complete embrace of the play’s comic energy. The unfolding of romance is rather tangential to the carnival of misunderstandings, unintentional misgendering, and misrule. The synergy between Toby and Andrew truly shines in this production, and the folksongs sung by these two rowdy characters remained an earworm for the entire next day.
In distinction, Cast 1’s performance keeps its comedic interludes but more heavily emphasizes the underlying subtext of loss and angst. This production takes the medical metaphor of being “plagued by love” or “lovesick” to its most innovatively literal level by setting the play in a hospital-like environment: gurneys, scrubs, IV poles, and all. The play focuses more on the drama of the romances, with the actors’ greater physicality with one another intensifying the portrayal of impassioned emotion.
Both versions were staged similarly in the MiST Theatre’s Black Box setup, with the audience seated on three sides, reminiscent of the thrust setup of Shakespearean performances at the Globe Theatre. Despite the simplicity of the stage design, both casts ensure that much is created from the minimal. Cast 1’s adaptation made more extensive use of stage lighting and the balcony setup, while Cast A innovatively used a stage riser as part of the performance space and split the down-center audience such that actors would join the crowd as observers, emphasizing the intimacy between stage and spectator.
The original un-adapted script’s recourse to heterosexual unions in the play’s finale, with the couplings of Viola-Orsino and Olivia-Sebastian, does diverge from the initial hints of queer futurity. Nevertheless, and pleasantly so, both of Theatre Erindale’s performances undercut any centering of heteronormative ideals. In Cast A’s performance, the passionate relationship between Antonio and Sebastian is very unambiguously not platonic. Similarly, Cast 1’s finale resists the heteronormative closure by leaving the couplings more ambiguous. There is no immediate shift in affection as in the original, allowing the relationships to remain open to interpretation. Both casts put on distinct yet equally entertaining performances. One show truly cannot substitute the other, so I highly suggest you watch both!
Catch both performances of Twelfth Night from October 24-26!
