- February 10, 2012
- 12:01 am
- Karis Hustad
- no comments
Shakespeare comedy at LSC
Image courtesy of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts's Flickr photostream.
Betrayal, deception, and treachery is all in a typical weekend for Loyola theatre students.
Not in their personal lives of course, but as a part of the newest theater production of Shakespeare’s comedy Measure for Measure, which debuted on Thursday night in the Mullady Theatre.
The dark comedy follows the story of Isabella, a virtuous nun and sister of Claudio, a man who has been thrown in jail by a strict judge named Angelo, bent on improving a moral code he deems neglected. Isabella vows to save her innocent brother while revealing the hypocrisy of Angelo.
The original play is set in Vienna, and the Loyola production is as well. But instead of 15th century Vienna, the play is set in the 1930s, just before World War II breaks out and fascism takes over Europe. Victoria Bain, student dramaturg, says the choice was made consciously in order to modernize the play, and deepen the connection between tensions prior to the beginning of the war and the tensions throughout the plot of the play.
“As the play continues, there is kind of this rising tension between the characters and political climate,” she says. “The thought was to set it in this era where tensions were rising.”
In addition to modernizing the play’s setting, Bain says she and her mentoring dramaturg Peter Kanelos worked hard to research the context and the text of the play in order to understand what each line, reference, and joke meant to the play. They passed this knowledge onto the actors, and she says she is pleased at how well they have been able to convey the meanings of some of Shakespeare’s more difficult diction.
“For this production, the actors are really doing great in their intentions and explaining what each word means, not in plain English, but by saying it with their actions and how they present themselves,” she says.
Loyola theatre students have the opportunity to test out their interpretation against two other local Illinois universities at the first ever 3U SHAK3SF3ST (#3ushak3sf3st on Twitter), a three-weekend festival that features the Bard’s work as interpreted by three different universities. The first weekend, Loyola is hosting Western Illinois as they perform The War of the Roses–an adaptation of all parts of Henry VI and Bradley University as they perform The Tempest. In subsequent weekends, Loyola will travel to each of those universities to perform Measure for Measure for college audiences around Illinois.
The audience has an opportunity to participate in 3U SHAK3SF3ST as well, by purchasing a “groundlings” pass, which offers admission to all three shows during the weekend for only $10. The name refers to the crowd that gathered in the “pit” in front of the stage at plays in Shakespeare’s time.
Measure for Measure will run through February 17 with Thursday through Saturday shows beginning at 7:30 p.m. and a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. Tickets range from $7 to $15. Book your seat today! 3USHAK3SF3ST will take place the weekend of February 17. For more information on Measure for Measure, visit the Arts Alive blog here. For more information on 3U SHAK3SF3ST visit the website, here.
