EAST BRUNSWICK — As the East Brunswick High School Drama Club will show this weekend, William Shakespeare’s work was not limited to tragedy and romance.
The school is putting on Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night (or What You Will),” a comedy that is short on morals or lessons and long on twists, confusion and hilarity, according to one of the show’s stars, Dominique Dionne.
The show, which will be presented Friday and Saturday at the high school, 380 Cranbury Road, is being performed in a style known as commedia dell’arte, according to theater teacher and director Jeffrey Davis. Italian for “comedy of craft,” the style originated in Italy during the 1500s and is largely improvised, using masked characters.
“It was sort of the sitcom of its day,” Davis said.
“I decided to apply it to this play because I felt it fit the style and mood of the play, but also to stretch the students (though some of them might argue that Shakespeare himself is a stretch),” he said.
The play will be performed largely by characters in masks using the traditional characteristics of the commedia players transposed onto Shakespeare’s characters. For example, Dominique plays Feste the Jester, but as the commedia character of Harlequin.
“Each character has certain traits, walks, habits, etc., that the students had to learn and apply,” Davis said. “For example, the lovers in commedia always lean, leading from the heart in everything they do.”
Davis is impressed with the outcomes.
“I have been amazed at the way the kids have embraced it and adapted,” he said.
“Twelfth Night” is based on a twisted tale of twins, brother and sister, who get shipwrecked. Dionne said that when the sister, Viola, goes to work in town for the Duke, she dresses as a man. Well, the Duke then asks her to court a woman, Olivia, for him, and the woman, believing Viola is a man, falls in love with “him.”
Meanwhile, Viola’s brother, Sebastian, is rescued from the wreck by another man, and they travel about town. However, Sebastian’s traveling partner gets into a dispute with the Duke, which gets him arrested.
Also, Olivia ends up mistaking Sebastian for Viola, who looked like Sebastian when she was in drag, and asks Sebastian to marry her.
“It’s basically a comedy of mistaken identity,” Dionne said.
The ending will be for attendees to find out.
Dionne said the play includes about 24 actors, and another 15 to 20 in the crew, all part of the Drama Club.
“I always try to challenge [the students], and this time they had to master both Shakespeare’s language and commedia dell’arte, and they have done so beautifully,” Davis said.
The show will be performed at 7 p.m. Friday, and at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors. Dionne noted that most of the money from ticket sales helps to fund the Drama Club’s costumes, props, set building and play rights.