It’s a new spin on an old tale. It is told through a whirl of vibrant colors, abstract shapes and an abundance of music.
This probably doesn’t sound like traditional Shakespeare.
“There has been a trend to set Shakespeare in modern times, but this one creates its own world,” said Mike Holmes, a junior in theatre.
Holmes will play Sir Toby Belch in Ohio State Department of Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” It opens at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Roy Bowen Theatre and will continue through Nov. 24.
Shakespeare can normally be associated with women in tight corsets and a medieval setting but guest director Maureen Ryan had other ideas for her production of “Twelfth Night.”
Ryan said she was inspired by the Cubist movement which took place in the early 1900s. Cubism was based on the concept that the essence of objects can only be captured by showing it from multiple points of view at the same time.
“It takes place in a whirly gig of time. With Cubism we can move in an instant through time – past, present and future happening all at once,” Ryan said.
Ryan said she was inspired by the paintings of Cubist Juan Gris.
“His paintings take historical figures and give them futuristic features,” Ryan said.
Carla Chaffin, a graduate student in the department of theatre, designed the set following Cubist concepts.
She said the Cubist ideas worked for this production because the set had to represent a lot of different places in the story.
“The set is fun and vibrant. It is probably not what you’d expect to see with Shakespeare,” Chaffin said.
The costumes, designed by Melissa Bialko, a MFA student in the department of theatre, share the Cubist style of the set.
“You need to find with Shakespeare what you can’t find in anything else,” she said. “So with Cubism you can pick and choose colors and shapes and lines that really match the characters.”
Because the play is not set in a particular time period, she derived the costumes from a variety of time periods.
“I used pieces from every time and place from ancient Egypt to Scotland to present day America,” she said. “Cubism is all period but no period at the same time.”
She also agreed the Cubist images will help the audience to better understand the story.
“Cubism makes it more accessible to the audience. It is easier to define people when you don’t have a specific time period,” Bialko said. “It helps to define for a young audience – who don’t readily understand Shakespeare – who these people are, and what groups they belong to.”
Both Ryan and Holmes said along with the innovative Cubist ideas that surround the play, the play itself and the cast have a lot to offer.
” ‘Twelfth Night’ is one of Shakespeare’s more endearing stories,” Ryan said.
She said students will enjoy the show because it involves a lot of live music – composed by graduate student Igor Karacha – and it deals with behavior and a human experience young people will recognize and latch onto.
“It is a story about people who are passionate about their lives,” Ryan said. “We are all so busy in our lives following a routine that we miss the element of passion in our lives.”
The play has moments of incredible drama and moments of very broad farce, she said.
“Shakespeare’s comedies are very intricate. One thing plays off another so you get a chain reaction – jokes build one after another,” Holmes said.
Holmes said the strongest aspect of the production is the cohesion of the ensemble and the time everyone is willing to invest to make it stand as its own interpretation.
For further performance dates and times, call the Drake Performance and Event Center box office at 292-2295. Tickets for “Twelfth Night,” are $13 general admission, $10 for OSU faculty, staff, Alumni Association members and senior citizens and $7 for students. They are available at the door or from the box office.
