| It was a "Teen Takeover" performance today at CSC, hosted by members of NextGen, CSC's teen leadership program. There were a lot of mostly middle-school aged kids in the audience and they really seemed to respond to the the physical comedy that Fiasco brings to this production which is lively and funny but not especially feelingful or otherwise nuanced. Fiasco excels as making Shakespeare plain which is both its strength and sometimes its weakness. TWELFTH NIGHT is a tranvestite comedy steeped in sorrow. Both Olivia and Viola are stunned by the loss of their brothers; it's grief, and the gradual excitement of a new experience of their gender, that propels them towards renewal. Fiasco doesn't manage to particularly illuminate the play's sly gender confusion and the anxieties regarding sexual attraction that ensue in the wake of this gender turmoil. Nonetheless, the actors are inventive and the play is still moving, as Shakespeare always is, when all are finally, ardently united. |
