Shakespearean play offers ‘comic characters’

BY JUDI STRAUGHAN

There is something so satisfying about sitting outdoors watching a Shakespearean comedy. Thorneloe Theatre Arts is, once again, rolling out the welcome turf for one of summer’s most unforgettable experiences.

Picture yourself basking in the warm evening sun, molded into your favourite comfy lawn chair. You are poised with family and friends, ready to laugh. Will Thorneloe deliver in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night? You bet they will. You can trust director Patricia Tedford, part of Thorneloe’s theatre faculty, to serve up the goods.

Twelfth Night is a tale of cross-dressing love, as only Shakespeare can create. Viola, disguised as a man, inadvertently causes Olivia to fall in love with her — the kind of confusion Shakespearean comedies are made of. To support the theme of identity confusion, Tedford has cast a number of females in male roles.

Jocelyn Dotta, who has been involved in Sudbury theatre since she was 13, plays Feste, a clown-like character traditionally played by a man.

“Clowns are androgynous characters so it is not much of a stretch to see Feste as either male or female,” Dotta said, with a laugh.

“To play the character as a female adds a whole new level of comedy to the play. What a different kind of relationship she now has with the Duke. She’s so playful and mischievous, it’s truly fun to play her.”

Dotta goes on to point out that actor Nina Nesseth, a Laurentian graduate who plays a priest in the play as a female, has her work cut out for her.

“Now that’s been a fun challenge for Nina, getting her Catholic brain around playing a female priest. It really adds a new dimension to the comedy.”

Sir Andrew Aguecheek, one of the plays most engaging comic characters, is confidently played by Cora Eckert as a male. “Here’s what I’ll look like playing Aguecheek,” said Eckert, as she presented a photo of herself made up as a man. She cut her own hair and used it for the facial hair of the character. “I actually look just like my brother.”

Indeed, the females of the play are having a wonderful time stepping in and out of their male roles. But that’s not to say the males in the cast are not holding their own.

Richard Barlow, theatre student at Thorneloe, has been given the gift of playing Sir Toby Belch. The name says it all.

During rehearsal, Barlow commands the stage, strutting around in his cowboy boots (this contemporary version has been set in the deep south) tossing cans of beer on cue to other characters. It’s clear it’s not the first beverage ever tossed by Barlow. Other times, Barlow as Belch is hiding behind a bush with twigs and leaves spiking moose-like from his head so he is not seen by the duped Malvolio (Kevin Schaffer). Barlow hysterically belly crawls across the yard in comic warfare.

Marc Bosse, as Fabian, hangs from a tree, plotting with Belch about how they’ll make Malvolio look like a fool. It’s the stuff Shakespeare is made of.

“I love the way Patricia has used all the space, ” Dotta said. “The actors use not only the bushes and trees, but they come right through the audience on occasion, acting behind them.”

Craig Pearson couldn’t agree more about the creative presentation. “I love working where there are no barriers between the actor and the audience, and where you have to play so big you don’t get lost in space,” he said.

“It’s really liberating for the actors. And the audience is going to love the modern-day songs in the show.”

Twelfth Night is a pay-what-you-can, bring-your-own-lawn-chair experience that runs June 24 to 26, at 7 p.m. nightly on the Thorneloe campus.

For more information, e-mail Patricia Tedford at [email protected] 

Judi Straughan is education co-ordinator with the Sudbury Theatre Centre.