'Twelfth Night;' A night to remember

KENDALL NEIL ASST. A&E EDITOR

How do you take an older play and relate it back to the world that we live in today? That was the challenge presented to director Whit MacLaughlin when he took on the task to direct Shakespeare's --Twelfth Night or what you will."MacLaughlin has a special intrigue for the mtd-l 950s. With this in mind, he brought this older play to life in a vibrant and more modern setting while keeping the words of Shakespeare intact. Place: Illyria, a town on the seacoast of Italy. Time: 1957: postwar.

One of the most entertaining characters was Sir Andrew Aguecheek played by Scott Drummond. In his first appearance in the play, he rides an electric scooter across the staged boardwalk that overlooks the gleaming ocean, while proudly raising his middle finger high in the air. His goofy and idiotic statements provide the comic relief in the play. He is the typical character that gave the audience enough shock appeal to laugh at his childish antics.

A new interesting spin on the play was the addition of musical interludes sung by Bev Appleton who played the role of Feste, Olivia's jester or clown. Appleton brought back the classics of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley and related them to the words of Shakespeare. When the language seemed to be too much to take, the musical sty lings of Appleton brought the crowd to smiles with the familiar tunes and lyrics of the l 950's.