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...faulty arithmetic aside. A 20th season is reason enough to celebrate. The AST has aptly just kicked off with Twelfth Night, a work often chosen for special occasions. Tyrone Guthrie used it to inaugurate Canada's Stratford Festival, and it was the first Shakespearean play ever to be televised in its entirety from a theatre. It is probable that Shakespeare wrote the play for an important Twelfth Night entertainment at Queen Elizabeth's court. The year of its first performance is in some dispute, but such a superlative achievement had to have come after the two other romantic comedies...
John Conklin, new to the AST, has designed a serviceable unit set. In the distance is a sky-and-seascape (I could do without the movable ocean-wave cutouts). To the right is a staircase, and situated here and there are a stone lantern, short columns and statuettes. Perhaps suggested by the Christmas-tree tinsel of the Twelfth Night season, the pervading color of all the solid objects and their trimmings is silver. A close inspection, however, reveals a number of human skulls outlined in the surface textures, as though to suggest--quite rightly--that there are sombre or tart...
...third time the American Shakespeare Theatre has essayed this masterwork. In 1961 Pat Hingle was woefully miscast in the title role. Six years ago John Colicos was an impressive Macbeth, but poorly supported. For me the current go-around, staged by the AST's artistic director, Michael Kahn, proved frustrating...
ALAS, when we come to the two main players, there isn't a hint of virtuosity. If the AST wanted to import someone to play just the single role of Macbeth this summer, why pick Fritz Weaver? Fifteen years ago Weaver attempted Hamlet here, without much success. He hasn't improved in the interim...
...Note--The drive to the picturesque AST grounds on the Housatonic River takes about two and a half hours via the Massachusetts Turnpike. Interstate 91, and the Connecticut Turnpike to Exit 32 or 31. Performances in the air-conditioned Theatre traditionally tend to begin promptly at 2 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. There are free facilities for picnickers on the premises...