Show: 30
Title: Breakneck Twelfth Night
Category: Drama / Musical Theater / Original Music / Physical Theater / Solo Show / Shakespearian elements
By: Timothy Mooney Repertory Theatre
Created by: Timothy Mooney
Location: Barker Center
Summary: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will, performed in one hour by one actor.
Highlights: Timothy Mooney is such a pro at this, and always impressive. The show truly is this familiar comedic play about a brother and sister separated by a shipwreck and mistaken for each other when the sister disguises herself as a man and woos the lady Olivia on behalf of the Duke, but at breakneck pace. And I don't think he really cuts out any plotlines, he just condenses everything. He walks us though the play scene by scene, summarizing some of the lines as exposition, but also speaking many of the lines as all of the different characters. He also provides some commentary, like the fact that Shakespeare always included male actors in drag, in particular this play with its double-drag, because women weren't allowed on the stage. And he fully performs each character, all distinct with different mannerisms and body carriage and style of speech, even singing the songs written into the script (this is the play that gave us the famous line, "if music be the food of love, play on"). He presents these 400+ year old classics so convincingly, so engagingly, so entertainingly, in this short time, that one wonders why Shakespeare ever needs to be more than an hour.
