{"id":248831,"date":"2015-07-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/shakespeares-outdoor-enchantment\/"},"modified":"2015-07-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T07:00:00","slug":"shakespeares-outdoor-enchantment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/shakespeares-outdoor-enchantment\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakespeare\u2019s outdoor enchantment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Charlene Baldridge<\/p>\n

Rebecca Taichman\u2019s Old Globe production of \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d<\/a> has got music, color, romance and sex appeal. And it\u2019s got wit and language by William Shakespeare, most of it well-spoken and well-executed.<\/p>\n

For innovation, a river runs across the stage, roses and rose petals play a huge role, as do mistaken identities, swordplay and ravishingly beautiful costumes.<\/p>\n

Taichman impressed local audiences last season with J.B. Priestly\u2019s era-spanning, complicated \u201cTime and the Conways.\u201d Her production of \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d is no less fascinating in its application of all the above and its piquant casting. Perhaps the plot is not crystal clear to an unseasoned Bardophile, but we\u2019ll leave that to their pending discussion; meanwhile, those who prepare in advance are rewarded bounteously, especially those with eyes to see, ears to hear and a passion for poetry.<\/p>\n

\"(foreground,<\/a>
(foreground, from l) Lowell Byers as Antonio and Tom McGowan as Sir Toby Belch with (background) Rutina Wesley as Viola, Daniel Petzold as Fabian, and Patrick Kerr as Andrew Aguecheek in \u201cTwelfth Night.\u201d (Photo by Jim Cox)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mistaken identities are caused by a set of twins, Viola (Rutina Wesley) and Sebastian (Leroy McClain), who are separated in a shipwreck off the coast of the fictional Illyria. Each thinks the other dead. Disguised as the lad Cesario, Viola enters service in the household of Duke Orsino (Terence Archie), who would woo the local countess, an heiress named Olivia (Sara Topham). Though she entertains a household stocked with visiting relatives and potential wooers, Olivia is still in mourning for her late father and brother, and intends to remain without the company of suitors for seven years.<\/p>\n

Principal among Olivia\u2019s guests are her wastrel but entertaining cousin, Sir Toby Belch (excellent Tom McGowan) and his wealthy friend, Andrew Aguecheek (Patrick Kerr), whom he hopes will win Olivia with his charms. Alas, Aguecheek lacks the requisite charms and is little more than a drinking companion and subsidizer of Belch\u2019s prodigious thirst. These two are thick with Maria (Amy Aquino), Olivia\u2019s wily housekeeper, who has cleverness enough for all.<\/p>\n

\"(from<\/a>
(from l) Daniel Petzold as Fabian, Patrick Kerr as Andrew Aguecheek, Tom McGowan as Sir Toby Belch, and Amy Aquino as Maria in \u201cTwelfth Night.\u201d
(Foto por Jim Cox)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Add to these Olivia\u2019s overweening household steward, Malvolio (Robert Joy); her wise Fool, Feste (Manoel Felciano); and her servant\/Belch\u2019s friend, Fabian (Daniel Petzold). Most impressive in bearing and diction is Lowell Byers, who plays dual roles as Sebastian\u2019s friend Antonio and the Sea Captain who rescues Viola.<\/p>\n

Several things drive the play: Viola\/Cesario\u2019s wooing of Olivia in Orsino\u2019s stead; Viola\u2019s love for Orsino, which is made impossible because he believes her a lad; Olivia\u2019s love for Cesario (\u201che\u201d tries to tell her its impossible, but she keeps blooming in her passionate reawakening, evidenced by David Israel Reynoso gorgeous costumes); and the plot hatched by Maria, Sir Toby and Aguecheek to bring down Malvolio.<\/p>\n

All comes out right with the reappearance of Sebastian, who solves the many mysteries of attraction and mistaken identity.<\/p>\n

The senses are continually assailed by beauty and animal attraction: for instance, Orsino\u2019s bare chest and chains, his musculature and his growing attraction to Cesario\/Viola, beautifully demonstrated when she emerges as the woman she is. In her growing love for Cesario, Topham\u2019s Olivia is as valley girl and vacant as they come, giving new dimension to the role. Clad in outrageously funny trousers, Kerr\u2019s Aguecheek is the most inept ever (Taichman\u2019s staging of the duel between Aguecheek and Cesario is among the funniest I\u2019ve ever seen, due in part to Kerr\u2019s superb physical comedy). The \u00fcber-talented Felciano quite steals the show with his Feste, who sings, strums and plays the violin and shows his character far superior in intellect and wit to all the others. Try as she might, Wesley\u2019s Viola\/Cesario pales in comparison to the rest, a common problem.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>The upstage water element (scenic designer is Ricardo Hernandez) and the immense roses are quite captivating, adding to the splendor of an outdoor evening (June 27) in which \u201cthe rain [that] raineth every day\u201d rained only at the end of the show. Christopher Akerlind provides lighting design; Todd Almond, original music; and Acme Sound Design, the unobtrusive microphones that make it all audible. Chase Brock is choreographer and George Ye, the fight director.<\/p>\n

\u2014Charlene Baldridge has been writing about the arts since 1979. You can follow her blog at charlenebaldridge.com or reach her at charb81@gmail.com.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charlene Baldridge Rebecca Taichman\u2019s Old Globe production of \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d has got music, color, romance and sex appeal. And it\u2019s got wit and language by William Shakespeare, most of it well-spoken and well-executed.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":731,"featured_media":248832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Shakespeare\u2019s outdoor enchantment","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/731"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}