With Memorial Day behind us the summer seasons at venues all across the country are already starting. Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon gets its season going with a production of Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night. Performances begin on June 1st and continue through September 28th.
Cross-dressing, mistaken identities and mismatched lovers are part of the story here. Viola and her brother Sebastian are shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria. She fears her bother has died and dresses as a man to find out what’s happened. Though disguised as a man, she becomes enamored with Duke Orsino, but he’s in love with Lady Olivia who loves Viola, unaware that she isn’t really a man.
The cast for Twelfth Night includes Willow Geer as Viola, Christine Breihan as Olivia, Christopher W. Jones as Sir Toby Belch, Max Lawrence as Duke Orsino, Melora Marshall as Malvolio, Sean McConaghy as Antonio, Cavin Mohrhardt as Sebastian, Elizabeth Tobias as Maria, Frank Weidner as Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Time Winters as Feste.
Ellen Geer directs Twelfth Night. Marshall McDaniel sets some of Shakespeare’s beautiful text to music. Costume design for is by Amy Mazzaferro, lighting design is by Zach Moore and props are by Leah Haynor.
Theatricum Botanicum is an outdoor venue, so dressing appropriately is always a good idea. You might also want to bring cushions for the seating. There is plenty of space to have a picnic prior to each performance.
Twelfth Night will be performed in repertory with A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Moby Dick-Rehearsed, An Enemy of the People, The Skin of Our Teeth and The Gin Game. To check out the full schedule for the summer season go here.
For tickets go here.
Photo: Christopher W. Jones and Elizabeth Tobias in Twelfth Night/Photo by Ian Flanders