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Stage Review: Little Lake takes summer theater a step beyond with 'Twelfth Night'
Friday, August 04, 2000 By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Critic
How do you suppose, I kept wondering, would Will Disney respond?
Surely he'd be astonished. In its 52nd season, the first since its founder-director-actor-mentor died, Little Lake Theatre is staging Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," and wouldn't Will be proud of his theater for stretching itself so far? He'd be even prouder to see the color, flash and panache with which it's carried off.
Not that Little Lake has suddenly turned itself into a professional Shakespeare Festival. The acting doesn't always measure up to the parti-colored elan of costumes and props, and Bill Cameron's many jolly directorial flourishes sometimes go overboard.
But you can't go overboard without aiming farther than you've gone before, and the elaborate imagination of this "Twelfth Night" goes beyond what any comparable summer theater around here would attempt, let alone pull off.
"Twelfth Night" is the one about the young woman who, shipwrecked and separated from her twin brother, disguises herself as a man, falls in love with the Duke, is propositioned by the woman the Duke loves and then gets snarled up with the subplot that pits Sir Toby and Sir Andrew against Malvolio.
Cameron's "Twelfth Night" is more about globes, stars, clouds, bean bags, jester's gear and a cute little ship, just some of Susan Martinelli's cheery decorations that turn the Lake's in-the-round stage into a version of a rich kid's playroom equipped by the kind of stores that advertise in The New Yorker.
Many of these details are witty, such as the Shakespeare figurehead, swords with forks for pommels and profusion of globes, some in flower pots, suggesting cosmic playfulness -- though some props occasionally slow down transitions.
Lyn Oberg's elaborate costumes are just as colorful. Look for the jokey blend of now and then -- a jeans jacket here, black leather there, but broadly Elizabethan in inspiration. My favorite detail: Sir Toby's codpiece is actually a cod.
Cameron begins the show with a procession presided over by Feste, the jester, and a non-Shakespearean introduction that sounds as though it came from the 1996 movie by Trevor Nunn. There are many other small additions, such as references to "The Sound of Music" and Shakespeare's other plays. Cameron evades some of the dirty jokes but endorses some others -- and God bless the opening night audience, which seemed to get some jokes even when they were downplayed.
Rachel Downie plays Viola as cute and klutzy -- shy, soft-spoken, abashed. She's good, but the single note doesn't measure up to the confident heroine of Shakespeare's play. Marnie Hall gilds Olivia with an unnecessary cascade of giggles, missing the melancholy the text specifies, not to mention her stylishness.
Michael Brownlee is an inventive and attractive Feste, easily slipping into the other roles Feste plays, as well as a few where Cameron has Brownlee double. That he can't sing is a drawback only in losing the effect of the wonderful "Wind and the Rain."
But Cameron isn't much interested in that darker side of Shakespeare's play -- witness what he does with Malvolio, re-writing the most famous angry exit in Shakespeare ("I'll be revenged on the whole lot of you!") into cuddly inclusiveness. Yech! That makes it hard for Art DiConciliis, who doesn't get to play Malvolio's full range. Mark Yochum's Sir Toby goes out of his way to do a funny voice that isn't; starting out like a cartoon character from a kid's TV show, he gradually grows on you, though he isn't allowed Toby's somber ending either.
Ronald Gmys is a predictably amusing Air Andrew. Varyingly capable support comes from Nathan Sims (the Duke), Michael Karas (Fabian) and others. Chris Bondi plays Sebastian for laughs, and it works. So does Malvolio's famous letter scene, given some clever blocking and directorial jokes.
Special kudos to Martinelli, a capable Maria in addition to her elaborate design work.
The radical re-writing of Malvolio aside, I liked most of Cameron's shtick. His cutesy program essay shows the company is leery of getting ahead of their audience, but I think the Lake audience will appreciate this ambitious effort. Will will, too -- both Wills, in fact.
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