‘Nothing is funnier than unhappiness’

victoria-university-of-wellington

Thu Apr 26 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

‘Nothing is funnier than unhappiness’

Thursday, 26 April 2007, 5:02 pm
Press Release: Victoria University of Wellington

27 April 2007

A woman who falls in love with a woman dressed as a man, hooligans concerned only with debauchery, and an uptight steward who nobody likes is just a taste of the production chosen for a Victoria University theatre course.

Shakespeare’s richly comical Twelfth Night, directed by Dr Matt Wagner, Lecturer in the School of English, Film, Theatre, & Media Studies, is being performed later this month, with the cast and crew comprised of 17 theatre students eager to tackle what is arguably Shakespeare’s funniest play.

This most lyrical of plays also boasts a musical score almost entirely composed and performed by the students themselves. Shakespeare’s lyrics are set to sometimes haunting, sometimes humorous instrumental accompaniments, ranging from the cello, to the Māori flute Koauau, to the ukulele.

Dr Wagner says the backbone of the play is the balance between the pleasurable and the melancholic.

“The production is designed very much under the aesthetic influence of the 20th Century Avant Garde. Inspired by the works of Samuel Beckett, Tom Waits, and Rene Magritte, we find in this world of Illyria some of the funniest and most miserable characters you could come across.”

Beckett wrote that “nothing is funnier than unhappiness”. Perhaps nowhere does this ring more true than in Victoria’s season of Twelfth Night. The melancholic and the festive combine in this dream-like world of delayed suspense where the revels are plentiful and “the rain it raineth everyday”.

Playing a season of only five nights at the Kelburn Campus’ Studio 77, 77 Fairlie Terrace – May 15 to 19 – booking is highly recommended. To book phone (04) 463 5221 or email theatre@vuw.ac.nz. The show begins at 7.30pm each night and tickets are priced affordably at $8 for students, $12 for others.

ENDS

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