12th Night
Shakespeare, most of us will agree, is the best playwright in the English language and everyone, it seems, wants to see him performed, whether or not they know any of his contemporaries (Marlowe, Kyd, Johnson). And summertime is the ripest time to perform the master because nowadays most companies need subsidization and the powers-that-grant subsidies, as well as general audiences, have (at the very least) heard of Shakespeare.
Thus, a plethora of summer productions. The Classical Theatre Lab, based in West Hollywood, California, has been subsidized for the past three years by the City of W.H. (Interestingly, unlike Willie, the CTL hasn’t dedicated this production to Mr. W.H.). Ergo, 12th NIGHT. They brought on board the actor/Shakespeare scholar, Armin Shimmerman, to bring the play to life, which he has done, admirably.
Most likely written in 1601, the comedy makes broad fun of the well-heeled of the day, as well as the Puritan minority which interfered with the theatre so often. A shipwreck has washed ashore a twin brother and sister, at different spots, so that they do not know the other has survived. The subservient role of women at the time demands that Viola (Julie Alexander) dress as a boy and that Sebastian (Mike Yurchak) bring the sailor who is in love with him, Antonio (Pete Scherer), along for the search for his sister.
In the meantime, in Illyria, this land they have washed upon, Olivia (Victoria Hoffman), after a year of mourning for her dead father and brother, is pestered with protestations of love by Duke Orsino (John D. Crawford). Most of the action takes place in Olivia’s mansion, where her drunken cousin, Sir Toby Belch (Michael Matthys), and a foolish aristocrat he’s trying to fleece, Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Barry Saltzman) team up with Olivia’s well-to-do companion, Maria (Jean Gilpin) to show up what a hypocrite Olivia’s major domo, Malvolio (Stephan Moromarco), is. And, with other conniving servants and friends, the villains and fools are set upon by the results of their own follies and our twins are happily married to their betters.
This can be a very charming and funny play. Shimmerman’s production, considering the vagaries of the setting (a park where noisy people congregate, no appreciable budget -- thus the 5-7pm performances, needing no scenery or lighting; not unlike in Shakespeare’s day -- and uneven casting, comes off rather well. The leads are able, classically-trained actors, especially Olivia, Gilpin, Alexander and Matthys, and except for a mediocre Malvolio and a virile but uninteresting Orsino, most come off well.
One wishes, however, that the granting-folk would look around for less well-known plays of the Elizabethan era to produce, especially after the summer’s end. Ben Johnson’s EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOR, or John Webster’s THE DUCHESS OF MALFI, or Marlowe’s MASSACRE AT PARIS are all terrific plays that require the same classical training as HAMLET or ROMEO AND JULIET, and aren’t as familiar, so let’s see some of them, eh?
Plays through August 23rd, Saturdays and Sundays at 5:00pm only at Plummer Park, West Hollywood, except for a Sunday, August 9th performance at 4:00pm at Kings Road Park.
323.960.5691 for reservations, although seating is free.