Twelfth Night (T. Schreiber): Cogs and Dissonance

Now, I've seen a lot of Twelfth Nights in my day: A Titanic-themed one with everyone in tuxes and evening gowns (and Feste as Charlie Chaplin), a Mardi-Gras themed production, a production where Feste was inexplicably 12 young women dressed as rag dolls, the musical adaptations Illyria and Your Own Thing, Twelfth Night: The Drinking Game, Twelfth Night of the Living Dead... As a friend pointed out, a veritable Twelfth Night Gallery. So many directors seem to take the play's subtitle "What You Will" too literally.

But never before have I seen so much attention paid to the design and concept of the show with as little attention to the actual text as in the current production at T. Schreiber Studio. Director Cat Parker (with help from costume designer Karen Ann Ledger and set designer George Allison) has entirely nailed the steampunk aesthetic for which she aimed. Incorporating video, strange machines, a gigantic floor-sized crossword puzzle, and amazingly detailed costumes, the production is a feast for the eyes, and while utilizing the music of the band Cloud Cult, for the ears as well.

This production of Twelfth Night marks T. Schreiber Studio's first Shakespeare since the mid-70s- and it sometimes ap pears that very few people involved in the production actually did any research about the play itself, from mispronounced character names, ignored jokes, and strange unconventional character choices.

Parker's concept for the play is that Feste (Matt Steiner) is a semi-magical figure (who works from "Magic for Dummies"), attempting to bring passion to Illyria, by drawing Viola and Sebastian to the country. To that end, she has the actor double as both the sea-captain who brings Viola ashore, and, somewhat improbably, as Antonio, who brings Sebastian ashore; of course, textually Feste also masquerades as Master Topaz, the parson, which spreads the character so thin that although Steiner is adorable and funny (and delivers one of the most unusually heterosexual interpretations of Antonio I've ever seen), his omnipresence makes him nearly invisible.

Jacqueline van Biene is quite wonderful as Viola, letting the character grow from her initial timidity into a stronger and more capable person as she gets more comfortable in her man's disguise. Andrea Marie Smith has several nice moments as Olivia, despite being hampered by continuing a stage-wide crossword puzzle during her scenes- the moments between van Biene and Smith are very strong. Shane Colt Jerome s eems to play Orsino as constantly angry, which seems to belie the character's stated melancholy (though perhaps his warlike ensemble, as well as that of his courtiers who all seem rather Flash Gordon, doesn't help). The comic characters, Sir Toby (Sterling Coyne), Sir Andrew (Will Ellis), Maria (Mari Minges), and Fabian (Joshua Jackson Day) are funny when the plot spurs them to action, but clearly don't understand what any of their wordplay means- additionally Ellis anticlimactically plays Andrew as thoughtful and mellow, and Coyne gets a few of his lines wrong, which further muddles the clarity of their scenes. Collin McGee has some nice moments in his short time onstage as Sebastian. Julian Elfer makes a very funny Malvolio.
Both Orsino and Olivia have a full courtly entourage (Loren Bidner, Justin Delasko, Michael DeRensis, Paten Hughes, Armando Merlo, Bhavna de Montebello, and Therese Tucker), which is refreshing, though the women are mainly there to model the lovely steampunk fashions.

Another strange directorial choice made was not to change the text at all- I totally understand the impulse of fidelity to the words that Shakespeare wrote, but when fisticuffs are used in place of swords, and the characters still refer to the swords that they aren't using, the cognitive dissonance is annoying and distracting (especially since Orsino's men have ostentatiously had swords on stage the entire time. And then, shortly after, another character pulls a gun!?  And then the bellicose Orsino uses his sword to nearly kill a messenger, so they weren't just for show...?). Feste is given an amusing musical steam machine, but then it's referred to as a tabor, and he says that he's singing, when he's clearly not (all the songs in the show, including the famous "When That I Was And a Little Tiny Boy", have been cut and replaced with Cloud Cult songs). A little liberty from the text here and there might have been warranted. And some cuts might not have been a bad thing, either, considering the production ran nearly three hours.

Twelfth Night
the Gloria Maddox Theater at T. Schreiber Studio (151 West 26th Street, 7th Floor).

The show plays the following regular schedule through Sunday, November 23th: Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm.

A suggested donation of $25.00 (Senior $20; General Student $22) is requested, and advance tickets can be purchased online at tschreiber.org or by calling 212-352-3101.

Tickets may also be purchased in person one hour prior to the show at The Gloria Maddox Theatre.

 

Photos by Gili Getz:

1. Matt Steiner, Shane Colt Jerome, Justin Delasko
2. Jacqueline van Biene and Andrea Marie Smith
3. Matt Steiner & the set
   

 

 

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