Shakespeare in the air as festival beckons

FRIDAY, OCT. 12: Six schools are preparing to host the Bermuda Shakespeare Festival which includes the playwright’s more popular pieces Twelfth Night, Mid Summer Night’s Dream, The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet.

Twelfth Night is certainly one of Shakespeare’s more light-hearted plays and this year it will be performed by the IB2 Theatre group at Bermuda High School.

Phaedra Dill, 17, is looking forward to her first leading role on stage as the young aristocrat Viola while Andrew Sussman, 16, prepares for his fourth Shakespeare Festival, in the raucous role of Sir Toby Belch.

Twelfth Night tells the story of a tricky love triangle with plenty of laughs and a splash of mistaken identity for good measure.

Young aristocrat Viola is swept into Illyrian shores when her ship is wrecked in a storm. Assuming her twin brother Sebastian is dead she sets out to find work. A friendly sea captain tells her of nobleman Duke Orsino who pines for the love of neighbouring Lady Olivia.

Viola decides to dress as a man and change her name to Cesario so she can get a job in the household of the Duke. In his company Viola soon falls for Orsino and is tortured when she has to deliver love letters to his beloved Olivia.

In Olivia’s house we meet all sorts of colourful characters including her drunkard uncle Sir Toby.

Even more mayhem ensues when Sebastian turns up on the scene and Olivia believes him to be Cesario.

Speaking to the Bermuda Sun during a rehearsal session at BHS, Phaedra said: “I had heard of the play before and I have seen the more modern version of it and really liked it — it’s a lot of fun.

“I auditioned for a female role — I didn’t know which one I wanted but I was glad to be chosen for Viola.

“She is very interesting because she has to play a man and constantly has to watch herself to make sure she is not revealing the fact that she is a woman — she constantly has to be on guard.

“I think her relationship with the lead male role is also very interesting.”

The students in IB2 Theatre decided on which play to perform by eliminating the ones the other schools were considering and by watching 15-minute versions of the plays on DVD.

Due to the fun nature of the drama group they decided on a light-hearted comedy with plenty of
action.

“We thought that a comedy would be the most fun to put on.

“This is the first time I’ve been cast in a big role so it was a shock for me to get a role with so many lines. We have been practicing over and over again and it’s been easier than I thought it would be to get the lines down.

“The biggest challenge for me is definitely the Shakespearean language — we tend to race through our lines to get through it and then it makes it more of a tongue twister so it is definitely a pacing thing — we all have to make sure we have to slow it down.”

While this is the first leading role for Phaedra, she is no stranger to the stage having acted minor roles in A Winter’s Tale in last year’s festival and Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves put on by the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society. She enjoys helping out backstage and is interested in pursuing film studies at university.

Andrew ‘Drew’ Sussman, 16, is at ease on the stage having performed in no less than four Shakespeare Festivals and number of other plays, not to mention being a band member in the up and coming local pop group The Paper Cutouts.

He will play Olivia’s freeloading uncle Sir Toby Belch, the drink-loving leader of a band of party
animals. The rebellious Belch is considered one of Shakespeare’s finest comedy characters who loves his Maria not for her beauty but for her ability to conger good pranks against such serious-minded characters as Malvolio.

Drew says his personality lends well to that of the gregarious, fun-loving Belch: “It was a surprise to get this role but when I read the role I could see why I was cast for it. I really like it it’s a lot of fun. I can say now that I’m not a drunk but I can certainly be dramatic sometimes and Toby is a melodramatic, eccentric character. I think our director Ms (Jane)Thorpe thought I could tap into that and just go all out with it.

“The opening scene when we first get to see Toby with his interaction and drunken tom foolery is a lot of fun to watch and kind of shocking at times. I’m having fun going completely crazy on stage!”

When he attended Somersfield Academy, Drew was in Othello as Iago and Much Ado About Nothing as Dogberry and he played the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz.

“Last year he was in the orchestra for A Winter’s Tale and now he is cast in a principal role for Twelfth Night. He is also looking forward to performing in BHS’s school production My Fair Lady and, even more so, in the school pantomime Aladdin.

“It was a lot of fun to play Dogberry in Much Ado and to have the privilege of playing Iago in Othello was amazing.

“This play is nice because it is very equally balanced so its not too much work for everyone but everyone gets their chance to shine.

“Much Ado is the closest to it that I have performed in. I like how everything mixes together at the end and all the characters get one chance together at the stage and all the intertwining stories come together.”

Passion

Theatre is a big passion for Drew and he certainly hopes to pursue the arts going forward. He hopes to join his band mates in the Paper Cutouts at the University of Western Ontario next year.

“I want to become an English teacher so I guess that already includes aspects of drama but hopefully I will also be able to become a drama teacher as well. I definitely want to be involved in theatre later on in my life.”