Reviewed 10/8/04
Attending a production of Shakespeare is like booking a random ticket to faraway lands. Last season, Twelfth Night was a trip to an Illyria south of the Mason/Dixon; this season, Southwest Shakespeare Company and Director Jared Sakren book us on a voyage to an Illyria that is a late 19th century Caribbean island off the coast of South America. I’ll never stop being amazed at the malleability of the Bard’s text, conforming as though originally written for most every location in which it is placed. So it is with this offering, which gallops along with a tropical pacing and adds a Spanish flair to this Elizabethan text.
On the veranda of a plantation fitted with wicker furniture, shipwrecked Viola (Maren Maclean) changes gender to Cesario and joins Count Orsino’s (Cale Epps) court. She is asked to woo the mourning Countess Olivia (Jennifer Bemis) in the name of Orsino, despite falling in love with him herself, and finds that Olivia would rather have her than her master. Meanwhile, Olivia’s lush of an uncle Sir Toby Belch (Larry Soller) joins forces with the dimwitted Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Charles Sowder), Olivia’s clown Feste (Jim Roehr) and maid Maria (Andrea Pruseau) to knock the pretentious steward Malvolio (Michael Bailey) down a few pegs.
Sakren has expanded on his usual impressive ability to create interesting stage pictures to include the kind of physicality reserved more for a farce. This is also an example where the ensemble has understood Sakren’s expectations of the level of comedy and is perfectly in tune. In these tropics, everyone is just a bit more absurd than usual for this script, playing at levels of comedy successfully over the top and enjoyable for it.
The normally regal and statuesque Maclean is more down-to-earth as she changes from woman to man, tossing many “Nopes,” and other striking colloquialisms and unplanned asides into her speech and having a much more fluid, loping physicality. Bemis, whose distinctive voice often separates her from those around her, here is absolutely and wonderfully integrated into the mix, tripping like a giddy schoolgirl over her passion for the disguised Viola and equally contributing to some wonderful moments in the scenes between herself and Maclean. Epps is a grand presence, full of self-loving appetites, but he is a bit one-note, depending more on his booming voice and barrel chest rather than connecting with his cast mates to bring across Orsino’s narcissism.
Bailey is a scream as the uptight, Puritanical Malvolio. He is Jeeves in need of Paxil until his transformation by his tricksters, when he brightens maniacally and dons a perfectly inspired outfit courtesy of Lois K. Myers’ to woo Olivia. Soller, Sowder, Roehr, and Pruseau are a good comic quartet. Soller is a darker, drunker Toby, balancing the oafishness of Sowder. Roher is wonderful as Feste, singing beautifully, playing a mandolin expertly, and delivering laugh lines with a slight Spanish flair. Pruseau is a presentational Maria, but she is in firm control of her timing. Due to an injury earlier in the day, Adam Harper understudied Viola’s twin Antonio, ordinarily performed by valley favorite Christian Miller. Considering the circumstances, his was a solid, assured performance.
Jeff Thomson’s unit set successfully suggests the colonial Caribbean setting. Dori Brown’s lighting has a few holes, especially downstage, but is otherwise workable. Myer’s remaining costumes are a good representation of the setting, especially the inspired creations for Maria and Feste.
Southwest Shakespeare adds another enjoyable offering to its record with this inventive production. Sakren and company continue to prove themselves the leader in classical theatre in the valley in impressive fashion.
