Stage Door News
Stage Door News
TORONTO – Slap on your neon and get to Breakout Studios for Snobbish Theatre’s party-production spin on one of the Bard’s most beloved comedies, Twelfth Night, or, Whatever.
Under director Kelsey Goldberg, the action of Shakespeare’s play is moved from the princely courts and forests of the Adriatic to rave in downtown Toronto. The Bard’s shipwrecked twins are instead separated amid the deep currents and sinking beats of a sprawling drug and alcohol-fueled party. In the darkness and confusion, Viola takes on a man’s name and appearance to join a gang of ravers led by Duke Orsino, the man she secretly desires. But instead, he uses her to help him get a hookup with Olivia, who, believing Viola to be an attractive emo boy, falls in lust with her. Meanwhile, Viola’s brother Sebastian has joined a group of queer raver boys and taken up with Antonio, and Olivia’s gang of partiers is scheme to give the notorious bully Malvolio his comeuppance. Can all the young revellers find love on the dancefloor? Whatever, it’s a party.
Inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and Punchdrunk Theatre’s interactive Macbeth adaptation Sleep No More, Snobbish Theatre hopes to infuse a fresh and modern meaning into Shakespeare’s beautiful words while taking the audience on a fully immersive journey through a party where an incredible story is being told. Scenes will take place in different parts of the studio, with the audience being led to each new development. The production invites the audience to become members of the party, dancing with the actors under the black lights to the live music. At times, the audience becomes the set, as when characters need to hide from each other by getting lost in the crowd of the rave.
Original music for the show has been created by Toronto indie pop artist Joel Lightman, and is performed by his band The Snobs. Producer Julian Munds calls the music a “mixture of old style mod rave with a kind of a modern British inspiration.”
Munds founded Snobbish Theatre to help reinvent the way classical theatre is produced in Toronto. “It felt like I was going to church rather than going to a play. I wanted to do something was more human and spoke to me and my generation.”
Munds says he chose Twelfth Night for his company’s debut production because it smartly speaks to a decay of values that sets in when people let their better natures submit to their vices.
“The play mirrors the St Patrick’s Day riots in London, ON,” he says. “They get drunk and do things that they’ll regret in the morning. They basically destroy what it means to be human in society and go into an animalistic sensibility. The play begins as a little festivity, but goes into torture and bullying and victimization.”
To enjoy the full effect of the rave setting, audience members are encouraged to wear neon colours and arrive early to enjoy the house band.
WHAT: Snobbish Theatre presents Twelfth Night or Whatever by
William Shakes
WHO: Director: Kelsey Goldberg
Cast: Julian Munds, Jared Bishop, Evan Sapach, Jenn Sartor, Stacey Gawrylash, Jason R. Stroud, Cameron Laurie, Sydney Dunitz, Megan Poole, Jessie Byiers
Music by Joel Lightman, performed by The Snobs
WHERE: Breakout Studios (1541 Bayview Ave)
WHEN: April 16-25, 2012; Mon-Wed, doors at 7:30pm, show begins at
8pm (note days)
TICKETS: $15/$10 students and arts workers at the door – audience
encouraged to wear neon
MORE INFORMATION: http://www.snobbishtheatre.com
TWITTER: @snobbishtheatre
Photo: Jared Bishop, Jenn Sartor and Cameron Laurie.
2012-03-27
Toronto: “Twelfth Night, or, Whatever” puts a raver spin on Shakespeare