Like
Feb 28 - ‘It's complicated'? Not in Twelfth Night
What is the nature of love?
You won't find the answer in Twelfth Night, the latest production by the Theatre and Stagecraft & Event Technology departments at Douglas College.
But that's not the point.
The idea is to examine the many facets of the most powerful human emotion, and the crazy - and cruel - things the lovelorn will do to have it, says director Thrasso Petras.
"It's a little bit like funhouse mirrors. You turn a corner and you see a different version of crazy love, and again, and again. And some of these versions of love are grotesque."
In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's romantic comedy about requited and unrequited love, complete with disguises, cross-dressing, nasty plots, secret marriages and mistaken identities, love indeed takes different forms. But it isn't complicated - a notion that the performers had to buy into in order to make the production a success.
"In Shakespeare plays there's no process to falling in love," Petras says. "It's ‘I see, I love.' Young people today are very much ‘I see, I think about, I'm not sure, I'll talk to my friends.' It's complicated."
"When you're building that on stage it's like an athletic event," he continues. "You don't jump the full length of your event on first day. You do one foot, two feet, then you do the whole thing. In order to convince an audience that you will love from zero to 60, you have to rehearse and make it convincing."
Petras says the production - which is in turn whimsical, cruel, funny and disquieting - will raise questions in audience members about our motivations for love, the dark side of love and, of course, the true nature of love.
"The questions move us forward," Petras says. "If we have all the answers, we're done."
Twelfth Night is presented by the Theatre and Stagecraft & Event Technology departments at Douglas College. It runs March 11-19 at the Laura C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre, 4100-700 Royal Ave., New Westminster. Tickets ($8-$15) are available through the Massey Theatre.
For more information see Arts Events or call 604 527 5723.
