Twelth Night
Twins and South Indian Influences Dance through Shakespeare
Twelfth Night or What You Will, Shakespeare’s classic comedy of mistaken identity, shipwreck, unrequited love and cross-gartered stockings with a dark underbelly of revenge will be performed in August by a cast of second year actors supported by design, technical, management and costume students.
| Where: | Te Whaea Theatre , Te Whaea National Dance & Drama Centre, 11 Hutchison Road |
| When: | 7.30pm, 22 August - 1 September (2pm matinee 1 Sep, no show Mon 27 August) |
| Price: | $15 / $12 |
| Bookings: | 04 381 9253 (automated line) |
Twelfth Night is directed by Toi Whakaari Senior Acting Tutor, Vanessa Byrnes. Vanessa is the mother of three-year-old twin girls and her ‘slightly obsessive’ interest in duality and mirror images is proving useful as she has had to find parts for each of the 22 second year actors in a play with only 15 characters.
“The relationship at the heart of the play for me is the one between Viola and her twin brother Sebastian,” said Vanessa. “We barely see them onstage together, but the closeness they have and the bond that twins can share is vital for the audience to understand.”
“I’ve taken this theme of mirroring and expanded it so that the character of Maria is played as non-identical twins, as are Fabian and Valentine. To give it the pan-cultural feeling I was after the casting is colour blind.”
The focus of this Twelfth Night is on the character of Feste – the fool and musician. Feste is being played by three different actors from vastly different cultures - England, Samoa and rural NZ. “I wanted to split the part up by the quality and emotional content – this is to open up the juice, texture and meat of the character,” said Vanessa.
In addition to enhance the feel of the isle of Illyria as a kind of immigrant transit lounge, the acting students are learning South Indian dance “It’s a bit more rough and multicultural than the usual Bollywood movie though,” said Vanessa.
Reflecting this key aspect of the show will be the live music, which is all composed especially for this project. Composer Tristan Carter will play viola, violin and mbira (African finger piano) in the show and will be accompanied by a Greek oud player and an Indian tabla player.
“I’m using a very traditional interpretation of the text, utilising what I learnt as an Assistant at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, combined with a contemporary reworking of the play from psychological and cultural perspectives,” said Vanessa.
The costumes for Twelfth Night are being designed by final year Performance Design student Hermione Flynn, recently returned from exhibiting her costume design at the Prague Quadrennial Scenography Exhibition and completing a short course at the famous Central St Martins College of Art and Design.
