THEATER

Dorothy Strelsin Theater
Twelfth Night or What You Will - Bedlam

Bedlam Theater is a small and very creative theater group that presents shows off Broadway.  Ben Brantley, critic for the New York Times, considers them the premier theater group in New York City.  We will not miss a production by Bedlam.

Today was another surprise and another venue.  The venue, stage, seating, and all, was about the size of a double garage.  Honestly!

The performance space...

There were 5 actors who shared and played all the parts of a major Shakespeare play.  They identified their characters by hats, aprons, and eye wear.

NOW, HERE'S THE KICKER!

We went back tonight to watch the same 5 actors perform the same play with each of the actors playing different parts with the play having an entirely different interpretation.

So, after watching a period version of Twelfth Night at 2:00 PM we returned this evening for a 1920s version of the same play.

The same 5 actors performed the play the second time but they didn't play the same roles as they did in the first performance.  The actors did a great job but the words carried the play.

THEATER REVIEW

Theater Review: Two Stagings, ‘Twelfth Night’

Two versions of a Shakespeare favorite prove that Bedlam Theatre Company is one of the most innovative troupes at work today

By TERRY TEACHOUT

Updated April 2, 2015 10:22 p.m. ET

New York

Bedlam Theatre Company, which specializes in small-scale, no-budget classical revivals that are both radically innovative and winningly playful, has scored yet another success with its double-barreled “Twelfth Night.” Catchily billed as “One Play, Two Ways,” Bedlam’s production of “Twelfth Night; or, What You Will” (to give Shakespeare’s ever-popular comedy its unabridged title) consists of two different versions of the same play, both of them staged by the same director, Eric Tucker, and performed by the same five-person cast, whose members share between them all 12 parts.

Twelfth Night (or What You Will)
What You Will (or Twelfth Night)

Bedlam Theatre Company, Dorothy Strelsin Theatre, Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex,
312 W. 36th St. ($30-$49), 866-811-4111, closes May 2

Two stagings of the same play, performed in rotating repertory. Both versions can be seen in a single day on Saturdays

If this sounds like a gimmick, fear not: Mr. Tucker, who doubles as director and cast member, has come up with a pair of shows whose differences underline the protean essence of Shakespeare’s genius. Version No. 1, “Twelfth Night,” performed in street clothes, is a drunken debauch that strips away much of the laughter—Edmund Lewis plays the preposterous Malvolio totally, terrifyingly straight—while Version No. 2, “What You Will,” is a bright-young-things revel in which the costumes of the white-clad actors are spattered from time to time with what we come to understand is their own hearts’ blood.

Both versions are performed in a grubby 46-seat black-box garment-district theater whose stage (if you want to call it that) is no bigger than the living room of a dirt-cheap New York apartment. That puts you face to face with Andrus Nichols, Susannah Millonzi, Tom O’Keefe and Messrs. Lewis and Tucker, who leap from role to role with exhilarating abandon. I especially like the moment in Version No. 1 when they change characters by flinging their hats at one another. Ms. Millonzi, who caught my eye in Shakespeare & Company’s 2011 “Romeo and Juliet” and the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s 2014 “Othello,” is, if possible, even more impressive this time around. She’s one of the most exciting young actors I’ve seen in recent seasons. Everybody in the cast is up to scratch, though, and Mr. Lewis’s two Malvolios—the other one is goofy and effete—couldn’t be more unpredictably unlike one another.

In the end, of course, these are Mr. Tucker’s shows, and here as in all of Bedlam’s previous ventures, he proves that he ranks high on the list of America’s most engaging and imaginative stage directors. To present two completely dissimilar stagings of one of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays in rotating repertory is the kind of “obvious” idea that only the most daring of artists would try. A single precedent comes to mind: Paul Taylor’s “Polaris,” in which the same choreography is danced twice in a row, accompanied by two different and sharply contrasting pieces of music. Such trickery would be mere stuntwork in the hands of lesser artists, but when the likes of Mr. Taylor and Mr. Tucker essay it, the results are as irresistible as they are challenging.

THEATER

Two Versions of ‘Twelfth Night’ Coming From Bedlam Theater Troupe

By PATRICK HEALY date published FEBRUARY 4, 2015 9:26 AM date updated

February 4, 2015 9:26 am

“Twelfth Night, Or what you will” is the full name of the dark comedy by Shakespeare that is simply called “Twelfth Night” in most productions, like the hit revival on Broadway last season. And that four-word subtitle will be put to inventive use this spring by Bedlam, the critically acclaimed Off Broadway troupe that recently mounted innovative stagings of “Sense & Sensibility” and “The Seagull.”

Bedlam announced Wednesday that it would present two versions of “Twelfth Night” in repertory. The original Shakespeare script will be used, and both plays will feature the same five actors in the many roles, but the versions will have different thematic emphases, aesthetics, and approaches by the performers to their characters.

“The version we’re calling, ‘Twelfth Night or What You Will’ centers around the theme that love can be difficult and extremely hard, but in the end also very magical and rewarding,” wrote Eric Tucker, the artistic director of Bedlam, in an email. “Our other version, which we’re calling ‘What You Will, or Twelfth Night’ centers around the theme that love is absolutely maddening and doesn’t always turn out ok in the end but it’s a wild ride.”

"Off-Broadway theater company Bedlam will present Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in rotating repertory with itself: Twelfth Night (or What You Will) and What You Will (or Twelfth Night). The productions, which are described as, "one play, two completely different ways," will be presented at the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre beginning March 11. Both productions officially open on March 22.

The casts of both plays will include Edmund Lewis, Andrus Nichols, Eric Tucker, Tom O'Keefe, Susannah Millonzi. The productions will feature costumes by Valerie Bart and lighting design by Les Dickert.

Bedlam is a company committed to the immediacy of the relationship between the actor and the audience. Bedlam creates theater in a flexible, raw space, presenting new writing, contemporary reappraisals of the classics, and small-scale musical theater. Their productions always include the audience. The company believes "that innovative use of space can collapse aesthetic distance and bring the audience into direct contact with the dangers and delicacies of life—inciting laughter and chaos, provoking thought and recreating the thrill of live experience."

Bedlam Presents One Play, Two Ways with TWELFTH NIGHT and WHAT YOU WILL,

The off-Broadway theatre company, BEDLAM, which received critical acclaim and multiple award nominations for its recent productions of Saint Joan and Hamlet, and The Seagull and Sense & Sensibility is presenting Shakespeare's classic comedy Twelfth Night in rotating repertory with itself: Twelfth Night (or What You Will) and What You Will (or Twelfth Night). One play, two completely different ways, with the same five actors, at the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre (312 W 36th Street, NYC) for 8 weeks only. Now in performances, Twelfth Night opens today, March 28 at 2pm, and What You Will opens Sunday, March 29 at 2pm.

"The version we're calling, Twelfth Night (or What You Will) centers around the theme that love can be difficult and extremely hard, but in the end also very magical and rewarding. Our other version, which we're calling What You Will (or Twelfth Night) centers around the theme that love is absolutely maddening and doesn't always turn out ok in the end but it's a wild ride," said Artistic Director Eric Tucker.

The casts feature the original Saint Joan and Hamlet cast of Edmund Lewis, Andrus Nichols, Eric Tucker, Tom O'Keefe, plus Susannah Millonzi.

Twelfth Night (or What You Will) and What You Will (or Twelfth Night) features costumes by Valerie Bart and lighting design by Les Dickert.

Bedlam is a company committed to the immediacy of the relationship between the actor and the audience. With large ideas and modest budgets, Bedlam creates theatre in a flexible, raw space, presenting new writing, contemporary reappraisals of the classics and small-scale musical theatre. Their productions always include the audience. Storytelling is paramount. Bedlam believes that innovative use of space can collapse aesthetic distance and bring the audience into direct contact with the dangers and delicacies of life--inciting laughter and chaos, provoking thought and recreating the thrill of live experience.