A List
3/23/09

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night At SLU April 1-4

CANTON - One of William Shakespeare's most popular comedies, Twelfth Night, will be performed at St. Lawrence University April 1 through 4, at 8 p.m. each evening in Gulick Theatre. Admission is free, but tickets are required. The box office in the theatre lobby will be open from 1 to 5 p.m. March 30 through April 3, and at 7:30 p.m. on show nights.

The production, sponsored by a generous gift from the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation with the assistance of Ralph M. Lutrin '47, is directed by Associate Professor of Performance and Communication Arts Rebecca Daniels.

Twelfth Night is set in the fantasy kingdom of Illyria, with themes of love, madness (especially the madness of misplaced love), disguise and the intermingling of fantasy and illusion. So what better contemporary setting for the play than the quintessential celebration of fantasy and illusion, Mardi Gras? This production is set in New Orleans in the late 1920s, with jazz adaptations of Shakespeare's original song lyrics created by Paul Fidalgo, formerly of the American Shakespeare Center.

The holiday of Twelfth Night (Epiphany) is the traditional beginning of the pre-Lenten carnival season; the original play (probably written in either 1600 or 1601) was most likely commissioned for some celebratory event. Further, Twelfth Night is the Shakespeare play that uses songs and music references most liberally in the text, and historic New Orleans is the home of some remarkable music.

For more information, call 315-229-5184.

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