Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

On a stage decked out in Christmastime red and green, an actor playing Feste, a court jester, serenades two boisterous, drunken characters amid their revelry with a song about love and youth. The audience watched intently as the moment passed and they were swept back up into the hectic, topsy-turvy world of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.”

“It’s a moment where Feste and the others are just sitting with that idea that life is fleeting and you’re not young forever,” Will Pomerantz, the director, said. “I wanted to allow that moment to happen, let the song affect the performer.”

Throughout November, Syracuse University’s Department of Drama is performing eight shows of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” adapted by Pomerantz. The performance is hosted in the Storch Theatre of Syracuse Stage/Drama Theater Complex.

Pomerantz’s adaptation brings the play from Elizabethan times to the 1960s, taking inspiration from Space Age themes in set and costume design. It maintains the play’s core theme of trickery through scenes focused on pranking other characters, with one scene portraying Feste creeping around the stage like a detective in a crime drama.

“Twelfth Night” follows the story of Viola, who is shipwrecked in the fictional land of Illyria. Viola disguises herself as a boy to serve the nobleman Orcino, who pursues Lady Olivia. When Lady Olivia falls for the disguised Viola, the three become entangled in a love triangle full of confusion, surprises and yearning.

Christian Calabrese | Staff Photographer

Natalie Kaplan stars as Viola, the central character in “Twelfth Night,” who disguises herself as a boy to serve Duke Orsino after being shipwrecked and separated from her twin.

The idea of “Twelfth Night” stems from the last of the 12 nights of Christmas. Celebrations of Twelfth Night originated in Elizabethan England and were full of drinking, revelry and trickery, Pomerantz said. Historically, Twelfth Night celebrations included masters swapping roles with servants.

Micaiah John, an SU senior studying acting, plays Lady Olivia and said the playful and confusing context of the holiday added dimension to her character. Lady Olivia grieves the recent loss of her brother at the beginning of the play and claims she won’t lay eyes on a male suitor for seven years. But the audience watches her open up to the world again and fall in love.

John described these ups and downs as a journey of transformative self-discovery for the character, which is manifested in Lady Olivia’s progressive mood swings.

“One minute, Olivia could be completely drowning in grief, but by the next scene, she could feel extremely vibrant and be absolutely and completely in love,” John said. “I think all those aspects coming together just gives the cast the permission to play to those extremes.”

Lead set designer and SU senior theater design major Mabel McPhee said the dramatic emotions of the characters was an inspiration for the set design.

McPhee drew from surrealism when designing the set, using oversized scale for checkered floor tiles and shelves. The set also includes six doors that the characters intermittently weave in and out of to represent the different storylines interacting, John said.

“Surrealism was a way to contextualize these characters’ behaviors, because they all have very heightened emotions throughout the play and love in these very grand ways and have big obsessions,” McPhee said.

McPhee said a guiding inspiration for the play’s 1960s setting was Pomerantz’s interest in Joseph Cornell’s Cornell Boxes, boxes of arranged objects portraying a theme. These are replicated in built-in enclaves on the walls of the set, reflecting Pomerantz’s vision of the entire play occurring without set changes. This set helps portray Illyria as a place with its own rules and aesthetic separate from the real world.

Assistant costume designer Clara Permuy said the time period was also a large influence in the play’s costume design, with costumes referencing iconic shows like Doctor Who and Star Trek. Permuy said main elements of the costumes are taken from research about ‘60s style, like geometry and symmetry in shapes and textures.

An integral part of portraying Lady Olivia’s character was costume design. In the beginning of the play, she is a solemn character, wearing a black mourning veil. Later in the play, she changes into a brighter-colored skirt, helping the audience to visualize how Lady Olivia becomes lighthearted as she falls in love, John said.

Christian Calabrese | Staff Photographer

Seth Winnick stars as Sebastian and Micaiah John stars as Olivia in SU Drama’s production of “Twelfth Night.”

Pomerantz said modern costumes connect audiences to the play’s characters, which can be particularly difficult with Shakespeare’s productions because of their age and prose. Though they can sometimes come across as dull or unengaging, Shakespeare’s classical plays live on because they represent aspects of what it means to be a human, Pomerantz said.

“Twelfth Night” captivates audiences with ‘60s mod-pop staging and aesthetic, but the main theme of growth and transformation persists throughout the play. The characters move from being obsessed with people who don’t love them back to finding love that’s reciprocated, an experience Pomerantz hopes audiences can connect with.

“A lot happens in two hours and people change, and they grow and things transform,” Pomerantz said. “I hope that people feel that little transformation inside themselves.”

Published on November 18, 2024 at 11:12 pm