The Twelfth Night
Outdoor ambience enhances love triangle

By Yasmine Salamah ---

People flocked to the Green Oval last Wednesday night to catch the first performance of the CS Program and Drama Club production, Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare. Guests seated under the clear summer eve's sky listened to a live violin and electric keyboard duet reminiscent of medieval Europe as they waited for the play to begin. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, a play involving the famous love triangle calamity, was "trimmed down" from the original for reasons of brevity and simplicity. "In just a few places we substituted modern words for some of the Shakespearean words. We had to give a couple of local references to please the audience," stated David Kurani, producer/designer of the play, as he referred to scenes involving trilling upon the announcement of a wedding, and certain characters' use of modern scientific terminology such as "an apple cloned could not be more alike." Despite these minor changes, the play exuded a traditional Shakespearean ambiance. The love triangle starts with Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, who is desperately in love with a countess named Olivia. Olivia, however, still sad and in mourning over her brother's death, turns Orsino away. When Viola, a noble woman who has survived a shipwreck, but thinks she has lost her brother to it, finds herself in the new and strange land of Illyria, she seeks refuge at Duke Orsino's home, disguising herself as a boy called Cesario. Cesario becomes Orsino's messenger and delivers his love messages to Olivia. Olivia then finds herself falling in love with Cesario, who, as a girl (Viola) has fallen in love with her employer, Duke Orsino. With the help of Countess Olivia's drunken uncle Sir Toby, Olivia's suitor, Sir Andrew, and her witty and mischievous maid, Maria, the plot thickens and becomes even more complicated as they interfere and forge a hilarious love letter to Malvolio, Olivia's stiff and pretentious butler, in which Olivia declares her undying love to him. When Sebastian, Viola's supposedly dead brother who happens to look exactly like her shows up, Olivia marries him. In spite of all this confusion, everything is settled once Viola's is reunited with her brother and reveals her true identity. Duke Orsino ends up getting together with Viola, Olivia marries Sebastian, and Sir Toby weds Maria, the maid. The production and acting crew were faced with many challenges. The director of the play, Peter Shebaya, admitted to the difficulties the crew encountered because of the "newness of working out here [on the Green Oval] in the open and not being able to rehearse here very much," because of the rain and weather. "There was more anxiety than usual." The lighting was also demanding and difficult to set up. Sharif Abdunnur, responsible for the stage lighting, admitted it took an entire month to set up all the lights. "There are 400 meters of plastic wires from which the Japanese lanterns hung [above the audiences head], 500 meters of electric cable and 45,000 of electric watts." "The turnout was excellent" stated Kurani, as did many of the people involved in the production. "I think people have been wanting such a production because it has been so long since the last outdoor production [which was in 1973, also by Shakespeare] on the steps of College Hall." The location wasn't the only reason behind the success of the play, for the play itself is multidimensional, much like Shakespeare's other plays. All the characters in the play are very well drawn and very distinct types. Shireen Alameddine, stage manager, expressed her pride in both the production, backstage, and acting crew, who she was in charge of coordinating. "I'm very happy with what went on this first night." An audience member and first year medical student at AUB, Abdulaziz El-Kadri declared that the costumes were his favorite part of the play. The costume designer, Jeanine Jaafar, one of many designers, drew inspiration from the classical Shakespearean era and wanted the costumes to reflect that. Jana Faour, a senior business student commented on the singing. "I like the singing," she declared. "He's got a really good voice," referring to Hani Hassan, who played Feste the fool. Shakespeare's fools are complicated characters, said Shebaya. "That's why it's very difficult acting his fools, because you've got to be a fool, but at the same time you have to exude wisdom, and I think he did a good job." By the end of the play, Kurani's only hope was that "all who were in the audience and all who worked in the production will just simply remember it for a long time and come away from the experience with a sense of pleasure and of aesthetic satisfaction of having seen a nice play, beautiful to look at, in pleasant surroundings."