It's All About the Comedy

When Shakespeare wrote “Twelfth Night,� the audience attending comedies during the Elizabethan era expected broad humor and simple story lines. In the current production at Shakespeare & Co., that is exactly what they would get. Director Jonathan Croy, one of S&C’s stalwart actors, has staged his show with strong emphasis on the laughs while minimizing the major plot. This “Twelfth Night� is just plain fun.

The major story concerning Viola, Olivia and Duke Orsino is a common Elizabethan conceit involving mistaken identities, women posing as men, and myriad people finding true love. The predictable events in this production are strengthened through the exuberant performances delivered by Merritt Janson (Viola) and Elizabeth Raetz (Olivia). Duane Allen Robinson’s Orsino is properly moody and lovelorn in his unfulfilled pursuit of Olivia.

But it is the three clowns, Feste (Robert Biggs), Sir Toby Belch (Nigel Gore) and Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Ryan Winkles), who drive the production as they, along with Lady Olivia’s servant Maria (Corinna May), plot to serve Malvolio (Ken Cheeseman) his comeuppance. Malvolio, Olivia’s steward, is a pompous, self-important martinet who lords over his underlings. The energy of these five performers buttressed by the physical shtick devised by Croy raises this sub-plot to sublime heights.

The multi-talented Biggs almost steals the show. He is not only a fine and understated actor, but he plays various instruments, sings original music he has composed with Company members Bill Barclay and Alexander Sovronsky, and leads the audience in a sing-along during intermission. In fact, there are several opportunities for unpressured audience participation throughout the show.

Gore’s Belch is a rascal whose delight in drink does not prevent him from enjoying the conspiracy. His broad characterization is textured with subtle line readings that suggest the ne’er-do-well’s knowledge of people and life. Aguecheek is joyously rendered by Winkles, whose sweetness creates a lovable bumpkin. He uses his voice and body to find laughs in virtually all his lines.

The spare set designed by director Croy and the lighting of Les Dickert are unobtrusive, allowing the audience to focus on the words and actions of the energetic cast. The costumes of Govane Lohbauer are richly colorful.

There are a number of enjoyable anachronisms that add to the manic quality of the show, including Shakespearean language spoken with a Jamaican accent.

The production ends on a “happily ever after� note, but that is not how Shakespeare wrote it. There is a darker side to the play that has been minimized, including a very harsh conclusion. What is offered, however, is a grand evening in the theater.

“Twelfth Night� runs through Sept. 5. For reservations, call 413-637-3353.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less