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Shakespeare comes to Hoboken!
by Craig
Tuesday June 03, 2008, 10:12 AM
Scene 'Twelfth Night': Tony White, center, as Toby Belch, drunkenly plots revenge with his cohorts Maria (Samantha Hancock, left) and Fabian (SharOn Halevy).
The Hudson Shakespeare Company, which has been performing shows in Hoboken since 1993, comes back this summer with three big shows: Twelfth Night, starting later this month; King John, next month; and an all-female production of Julius Caesar in August.
Twelfth Night, starring Catherine Leong as Viola and Jon Ciccarelli as Duke Orsino, will debut at Shipyard Park on June 16 at 7 p.m. It also will be performed in Hoboken at Sinatra Park on June 23 at 7 p.m. and again at Sinatra Park on June 30 at 7 p.m. (You can also see it June 19 at 8 p.m. in Ellsworth Park in Union City and at various other locations throughout the area this month.)
Here's the details regarding Twelfth Night:
Set this time in a modern, Hawaiian setting, this Shakespeare mistaken identity piece with a cross dressing theme follows a shipwrecked heroine named Viola (Catherine Leong) into the exotic and STRANGE island of Ilyria. Disguising herself as a man and gaining employment with the local love sick Duke Orsino (Jon Ciccarelli), Viola embroils herself with a rowdy band of beach combers led by the ever drunk Toby Belch (Tony White), Malvolio (Kevin Spencer), a stiff upper lip butler with a strange fashion sense, Olivia (Catherine Johnson), a love struck women who becomes interested in her and Andrew Aguecheek (Brian Hegerty), a nerdy guy who wants to challenge to Viola to a duel to the death, well sort of...all as she searches for her long lost twin brother Sebastian (P. J. Brennan). Will Viola be reunited with her brother? Will Toby's life long beer fest be thwarted by Malvolio? Will the Duke ever stop singing love songs? All this and more will be answered in HSC's production of "Twelfth Night".
Written in 1602-1603, "Twelfth Night" is considered the last of Shakespeare mature comedies which include "As You Like It" and "Much Ado About Nothing". The comic goings on are often laced with more subtle darker themes that Shakespeare explored around the same time in "Hamlet" and "Othello". The title refers to the Twelfth Night of the Christmas season which usually was a day where society roles were reversed, still celebrated in England today as "Boxing Day" . The master would become the servant and the servant the master often with strangely comic results. The theme of "switching roles" is taken to a frenetic level of comic buffoonery.
All Hudson County shows are free and it is recommended to bring fold out chairs to the event. In case of rain shows will not be rescheduled. Since 1992, Hudson Shakespeare has brought it summer and indoor productions to Hoboken and other sites in Hudson County. The company regularly tours year round with Shakespeare and modern plays set in a variety of periods and styles. In July, the company returns with a traditional medieval adaptation of the rarely done history play, "King John "and in August with an all female production of "Julius Caesar" set in a mix of modern and Roman backdrops. For more information on "Twelfth Night" and other HSC productions, please visit hudsonshakespeare.org.
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