THE HANGOVER REPORT – TFANA is serving up a low-frills, transparent TWELFTH NIGHT

The company of The Acting Company and Delaware Resident Ensemble Players’ production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" at Theatre for a New Audience.

The company of The Acting Company and Delaware Resident Ensemble Players’ production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” at Theatre for a New Audience.

Last night, I caught The Acting Company and Delaware Resident Ensemble Players’ solid production of Shakespeare’s perennial comedy Twelfth Night at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn. Over the years, the play – those characters! the plot! the language! – has become like comfort food to me. And that’s exactly how director Maria Aitken (perhaps best known for helming the hit comedy The 39 Steps both in London’s West End and on Broadway) has served it. Her low frills production offers no deep philosophical insight of its own and doesn’t attempt to radically update or re-set the play.

What the production lacks in significant emotional depth, strong point of view, and stylish acting – characteristics that mark my favorite productions of Shakespeare – it makes up for in utter transparency. I’ve rarely seen Shakespeare performed as clearly as it is here. Indeed, taken individually, none of the classically trained actors wowed me; I’ve seen far more memorable Violas, Orsinos, Olivias, Sebastians, and Malvolios. But their clear understanding of the text, for me, was a breath of fresh air – this is Shakespeare at its most easily consumable.

RECOMMENDED

 

TWELFTH NIGHT
Off-Broadway, Play
Theatre for a New Audience
2 hours, 30 minutes (with one intermission)
Through May 27

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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