Twelfth Night, or What You Will
A Noise Within, based now in Pasadena in a gorgeous made-for-them-from-the-ground-up theatre space, is presenting its first season, its 20th in existence, with an unhappily-flawed production of Shakespeare’s TWELTH NIGHT.
Director (and co-founder of ANW) Julia Rodriguez-Elliott made the artistic choice to place the action in pre-Revolution Cuba, giving her the chance to brighten the storyline with rhythmic Cuban music and festive costuming. It’s not a bad choice, but it would appear that due to the newness of the thrust-stage, she didn’t have a feel for its best usage, in addition to perhaps not understanding how this very Anglo-Saxon play could use Latino actors and not just its stalwart company members.
By no means is this a dreadful or completely wrong-headed production. Beginning with the able company of Robertson Dean (as Orsino), Apollo Dukakis (Sir Toby Belch), Mitchell Edmonds (duel roles of Captain and Priest), Jill Hill (Valentine), Steve Weingartner (Antonio) and, especially, Deborah Strang’s Maria and Geoff Elliott’s Malvolio, everyone does yeoman work here. And casting a black Feste (Anthony Mark Barrow) adds to the Cuban-connections. But there was a sense opening night of actors still not sure of the large stage, adorned but not filled by hanging tapestries and banners (Kurt Boetcher, designer). Scene changes took too long, thus drawing down audience-energy.
This critic is a firm believer in modernizing the work of classical theatre in ways that underpin (as opposed to undercutting) an author’s message. Here, Rodriguez-Elliott’s hand was not so sure. Why Cuba? Does the play reflect the tension that brought about Fidel Castro’s rise to totalitarian power? Do the repressive measures of the Catholic Church influence the action? No to both, from what we see. But since ANW has, in its now 20 years, proven itself to have at least a small interest in updating the material, this slight drawback will not hinder their future work.
“Twelfth Night” performs through December 16th, 2011 at 3353 East Foothill Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107. Call 626.356.3100 x1 for tickets or logon at www.anoisewithin.org.