Word: aguecheek
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Shaving the performance to just under two hours and clearly emphasizing the comedic scenes involving Sir Toby Belch (Steve Sweeney), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Jeremy L. England ’03) and Maria (Shannon R. Oatey) and their plots against Malvolio—played to just the right pitch of annoying by Tom Giordano ’96—Gamboa puts together a highly entertaining production that resists the urge to take the story too seriously...
...comic subtext revolves around the servants in Olivia’s household. The lanky England plays Aguecheek, a bumbling knight who hopes to marry Olivia, with the perfect amount of goofiness and obliviousness. He’s complimented well by Sweeney as the libidinous Sir Toby who is constantly in trouble—yet always lovable—for his drunken ways...
...sense of relaxation, in fact, pervades the performance. Most of the comic leads--Feste, Olivia's drunken uncle Toby Belch, (Keith Rogal) his wimpy cohort Andrew Aguecheek, (Peter Howard), and the wench Maria (Dolly Wiggins)--stick to understatement, letting the situations and the lines do the work. This tendency results in several nearly inaudible scenes, like those ones between Sebastian (Jeremy Black) and his follower Antonio--but often it works to the play's advantage, making the occasional broad comedy doubly comic. Rogal as Toby Belch may swallow a line or two, but his grimaces in otherwise underplayed scenes spark...
...characters underplay too far. Isenberg in the role of Viola leaves a bit too much to the script. Hailed by other characters as vivid, brilliant, sensitive, this Viola does little but throw up her hands in despair as she is mistaken for her brother, attacked by Toby and Aguecheek, adored and insulted, and made a pawn of. The play's grand denouement scene falls prey to this gradual slowing of pace, seeming just a bit too serene as a set of twins and two pairs of lovers are reunited...
...disguise. Before the plot is piloted to safe harbor, there are mistaken identities to be resolved, twin brother and sister to be reunited, true love's partners to be mated, and the lowbrow comic shenanigans of that Tweedledum-Tweedledee pair Sir Toby Belch (Leslie Yeo) and Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Frank Maraden) to beguile the time. The entke company is rich in skill and works with selfless unity to bring out the very best in the play...