In my junior year in college, I took a class in Shakespeare. I was a history major and only familiar with the few plays I read in high school, with a Cliff’s Notes by my side to help me understand what was going on. Fast forward a half century later and I find that Shakespearian English is once again, a foreign language.
Four centuries after his death, Shakespeare’s plays are still regularly performed around the world. This month, there are three productions of “Twelfth Night” on Philadelphia stages. I saw an innovative production at the Wilma Theater.
This is not your average Shakespeare. To begin with, though still called Ilyria, the setting is a dock by the ocean that could easily be New Jersey. The actors wear contemporary clothes- T-shirts and shorts. Furthermore, the play is neither one of the historical or tragic plays, but rather a romantic comedy, turned into a bit of a farce by the Wilma, with the grief aspects of the play toned down.
It begins when Viola survives a shipwreck off the coast of Ilyria, where she believes her twin brother, Sebastian has gone down with the ship. She disguises herself as a young man, to get employment with Duke Orsino. He is trying to court Olivia, who has recently lost her brother, and she is not interested in the Duke. She is, however, interested in Viola because she thinks Viola is a man. Everyone is trying to find romance. And then, there is the music. After all, as the great bard says through his character, Orsino, “if music be the food of love, play on.”
Eventually, Viola’s twin appears (he didn’t drown) and the confusion and the love triangles expand. There are so many supporting characters who try to encourage and discourage the possible romantic entanglements. In one subplot, they ridicule and embarrass Malvolio, the ill-tempered steward of Olivia, who thinks he has a chance to win her.
It is easy to lose track of what is happening. At the intermission, I talked with others in the audience. I learned that they too were having difficulty following the plot and the dialogue.
That said, there were many visual treats for us to enjoy. One was the fascinating way MK Tuomanen portrays both twins at the start of the play, with an amazing costume by designer Ivania Stack. And while there is an overabundance of physical comedy, the staging of an orgy in the kiddie pool, was hysterical!
In the program, director Yury Urnov asks of the play “How do we explore its depths without drowning in it?” He has opted to make it a broad comedy that is often silly without giving us those depths of the yearning for love. While it works at times, it is not enough to sustain the 2 ½ hour play on the Wilma stage.
Theaters are trying to make Shakespeare accessible to modern audiences, reminding us that his themes are still relevant today. In that vein I would love to see a production done in contemporary English.
“Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare at Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-546-7824 wilmatheater.org Thru June 25, 2023
Philadelphia Theater Reviews by Frank Burd 