Spring semester opener starts March 3
Carleigh Boyle (Olivia), left, and Peace Onyeme (Duke Orsino), right, compete for the hand of Riley Nedder (Viola/Cesario). (URI Photos by Jesse Dufault)
Two
years into a pandemic, there’s probably no better time for a full-on party – a
riotous, romantic comedy full of music, mistaken identity, separated and
reunited twins, a bevy of clowns, and a love triangle that may be more of a
quadrangle.
The
University of Rhode Island’s Theatre Department fits the bill with
Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” which opens Thursday, March 3, in J-Studio in the Fine Arts Center, 105
Upper College Road, on the Kingston Campus. (Audience members are required to
wear masks inside the Fine Arts Center.)
Believed to have been written around 1601 for the final night of the annual Twelve Days of Christmas festival, the play echoes the craziness of the holiday. Twins Viola and Sebastian are separated by a shipwreck that strands them on the seacoast of Illyria. Fearing her brother has drowned, Viola disguises herself as “Cesario” to find work as one of Duke Orsino’s manservants.
In
the Duke’s court, Viola’s alter ego, Cesario, becomes Orsino’s go-between in
professing his love to Countess Olivia. Olivia is mourning the death of her
brother but nonetheless falls for Viola disguised as Cesario. And Viola becomes
smitten with the Duke. Adding to the craziness, Olivia’s pompous steward,
Malvolio, is fooled into believing Olivia is actually in love with him.
“‘Twelfth Night’ is very, very funny but there’s a lot of heart and depth to it,” said visiting director Tyler Dobrowsky, a former associate artistic director at Trinity Repertory Company. “It is also quite romantic and then there’s the reunion between the long-lost twin siblings, which is profoundly moving.”
“‘Twelfth
Night’ is definitely hilarious,” said Riley Nedder, a junior theatre and
English major who plays Viola/Cesario. “The comedic subplots are just so
outrageous and they intertwine with the main plots in ways that feel ridiculous
but so believable.”
Carleigh
Boyle, a senior theatre major who plays Olivia, called the play Shakespeare’s
greatest comedy. It weaves a very good romantic story with the main characters,
she said, but adds a lot of charm with its collection of clowns who ratchet up
the miscommunication and confusion.
“Another
reason why this is Shakespeare’s greatest is because of how beautiful the
actual text is and the messages behind his characters,” she said. “It is not
just a surface slapstick comedy. It is a play about grief and love and
heartbreak, and how often they intersect. Love is the thing that heals everyone
in the end.”
“The
play is funny and incredible,” added Peace Onyeme, a senior double major in
theatre and film who plays Orsino. “I have seen many productions and I’ve seen
how Tyler and the cast take this play in an authentic way with big character
choices and different perspectives. Also, the play is very gender-fluid, bright
and melodious.”
URI’s
production gives “Twelfth Night” a definite contemporary feel, while not
exactly wedded to 2022. The set, designed by URI Theatre alumna Rénee
Surprenant Fitzgerald, resembles a dance club for royalty – with a DJ booth to
work in the play’s numerous musical interludes. Costumes, designed by Meghan
Donnelly, another Theatre alumna, take the contemporary look to another level.
“We
took a lot of inspiration from the Netflix [British high school comedy-drama],
‘Sex Education,’ which is similarly kind of set now but the fashion feels
heightened,” Dobrowsky said.
Not
contemporary is definitely the language. Dobrowsky has had a lot of experience
with Shakespeare and working with younger actors, including overseeing
Trinity’s education and outreach programming. At Trinity, he also directed
“Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Julius Caesar.” So, one area he focused at the
start of rehearsals was making sure the actors understood the archaic, murky
language – a hurdle for anyone who has read Shakespeare.
“The
language is not easy. It can be very dense. It is rich poetry at times, but
it’s language that requires a lot of diligence and work,” he said. “You
literally have to understand what you’re saying if you’re going to act it well.
Especially with comedy because the intonation is so important. The timing is so
important.”
During
table readings over Zoom, the actors focused on learning the language and its
meaning, and getting the pronunciation down so the audience could also grasp
the meaning, Onyeme said.
“As
it is with most plays, the language is the most important thing,” added Owen
Gilmartin, a senior theatre major who plays Sir Toby Belch, Olivia’s uncle and
an instigator in fooling Malvolio. “We spent our first week only on the text:
what we’re saying, what it means, how each character feels. And over the past
few weeks of rehearsals, we’ve been figuring out how to best communicate that.”
Gilmartin
said Shakespeare’s dialogue can be a big hurdle for potential theatre-goers.
“What I have learned from this process is that as actors, it is our job to
understand the language, not the audience’s, and that our number one priority
is to convey the meaning and to make the audience understand. I would tell a
prospective audience to drop that work, come in and let us show you why
‘Twelfth Night’ is Shakespeare’s funniest comedy.”
Added
Nedder, “Our production of ‘Twelfth Night’ is a party. Be ready to laugh, to
sigh and to fall in love alongside us.”
“Twelfth
Night” runs
March 3-5 and March 10-12 at 7:30 p.m. and March 6 and 13 at 2 p.m. in J-Studio
at the Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston Campus. Tickets are
$20 for general admission and $15 for senior citizens and URI students, faculty
and staff. Tickets can be purchased at the URI Theatre box office in the Fine
Arts Center or by calling (401) 874-5843. For more information on tickets and
the University’s COVID-19 policy, go to the ticket website.
