The Cristal Palace Spiegeltent. Photo by 12thnight.ca

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

What country, friends, is this? (I, ii, Twelfth Night)

Like Viola, the heroine of the Shakespeare comedy in this year’s Freewill Shakespeare Festival, who steps onto the shore of a strange new world, director Amanda Goldberg has arrived in the topsy-turvy Illyria that is Twelfth Night.

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“There are a lot of firsts for me,” says the former Montrealer, who moved west with degrees in both acting and theatre creation to get a master’s in directing at the U of A (she graduated in 2022). “My first time adapting a Shakespeare. My first time directing a Shakespeare. My first professional directing contract in Edmonton. My first time directing a comedy. My first time staging for a tent (and an intimate one at that, a vintage 220-seat 1947 Belgian spiegeltent at the Edmonton EXPO Centre). My first time working in rep, so only 12 days rehearsal to dig in.…”

Twelfth Night shares a 10-actor cast, and alternates dates for both rehearsals and performances, with David Horak’s production of Romeo and Juliet for this 34th annual edition of Edmonton’s much-loved summer festival.

Amanda Goldberg, who directs Twelfth Night at this year’s Freewill Shakespeare Festival. Photo supplied.

“It’s an understatement to say it’s been a challenge. But a welcome one and an exciting surprise!” declares Goldberg, the freelance director who’s just come off a season as Shadow Theatre’s artistic director fellowship holder to land the artistic producer gig at the SkirtsAfire Festival. So much for the original Goldberg plan to move back east in August.

Like Goldberg herself, the festival has “had a gear change,” as she puts it. The Cristal Palace Spiegeltent, the small cast size, the addition of new accessibility elements (like ASL interpretation) — not to mention acquiring an emerging director who’s directing Shakespeare for the first time, as she points out. “I think the company has taken risks upon risks. They should be acknowledged, and I hope they will be rewarded…. I’m really grateful to be part of any risks that are taken in this city,” she says.

Goldberg says she didn’t have “an instinctual connection” to Twelfth Night at the outset. “It wasn’t my go-to play…. I had to find my own way in.” And in adapting the play for 10 actors in an intimate space with quirks and oddities (the tent is almost another character, she says, echoing Horak), she found that way in via questions about sexuality, gender, and identity — and the actors themselves.

Many talented non-binary artists showed up to audition, with Viola’s famous ‘I left no ring with her’ monologue. Viola, disguised as the boy Cesario, is sent on a courtship mission from her love-struck boss Duke Orsino to his ever-resistant beloved. And she suddenly realizes Olivia has fallen in love with the messenger instead.

“Not surprisingly a lot of the artists had this natural connection to Viola and her story. And one thing that resonated with me was someone being able to dress in a certain way, and say ‘this is who I am’ and no one questions it; everyone accepts it … a joyful acknowledgement of gender expression.”

“Do I feel Viola is a queer character? No I don’t. But what she experiences is not too far from what queer people experience, the instinct to hide yourself, to get lost in a role you’re playing,” says Goldberg. “She’s a catalyst for other characters in the show to be able to grapple with their own identities. She comes, and she changes everyone’s world.”

“That’s where I dive into gender dynamic: Illyria is a place where people are stuck playing the roles they were dealt; a lot of them are held captive by grief or loss.…. Viola comes in, challenges expectations, and her presence forces the people of Illyria, most notably Olive and Orsino,, to confront what they think of as their deepest desires.”

Three of Goldberg’s actors are non-binary, and half are queer. “And asking these questions, and (seeing the play) through a more queer-focused lens does let us ask questions that will honour this community, I hope. She says “the search for love, trying to change yourself for love….” is at the heart oftTwelfth Night.

Goldberg grew up watching Shakespeare in parks in Montreal, loving the touring tradition that took plays to people where they were. “Shakespeare is a rite of passage for every director, but I’ve never really gravitated to it because I’ve never really seen myself represented in his plays,” she says. “Through adaptation, we’re reclaiming stories with representation from artists of today.”

The casting,  done jointly with Horak for the two productions, wasn’t so much looking for the perfect Orsino or Viola, Goldberg says, but this line of thought: “you’re an amazing artist; how can we fit you into this ensemble?”

In the challenge of adapting a big comedy for a small cast, Goldberg says she found the opportunity to expand characters who show up only once in a while. The servants are “much more present in this world,” notably Feste (Dean Stockdale), the “wise fool.” In the Twelfth Night we’ll see Feste with particular prominence, involved in the courts of both Olivia and Orsino, “always a spy on the wall” and “the only character who knows that Viola is actually Viola, a secret no one else knows.”

The biggest challenge in staging a spiegeltent Twelfth Night? The live music, says Goldberg. “There’s a lot of music, and it’s something embedded into the play, part of the world, part of what characters use to reflect on their heartbreak or grief…. So, getting the music to a place where it fits with this space.”

Goldberg echoes Horak in thinking of the tent as another character. And it won’t be till the show gets its first audiences that the directors will be able to think “what else we can do to incorporate the audience into the show, to allow them to feel part of its secrets?”

Meanwhile, Goldberg’s original plans continue to be de-railed in exciting ways, as she says happily. The perfect job is standing by. With its mandate to showcase, nurture, and enhance the profile of women in the arts, SkirtsAfire is almost eerily in alignment with We Are One, the indie company Goldberg had started in Montreal before she left. It was “really focused on giving the women the opportunity to play challenging roles” and weigh in against the punishing sexual inequality revealed by theatre statistics in that regard. Stay tuned for her plans.    

But first, Shakespeare. “In this city, artists are hungry for something new. It shows other companies and other producers it’s worth it to trust emerging artists to try things they’ve never done before.” And in a way, as Goldberg points out, “that’s why Freewill started. They saw something lacking in the theatre community, they took a swing. And here we are!”

Check out the 12thnight PREVIEW of the Freewill Shakespeare Festival speigeltent summer (and interview with artistic director David Horak) here.

PREVIEW

Freewill Shakespeare Festival

Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night

Directed by: David Horak and Amanda Goldberg

Starring: Jessy Ardern, Christina Nguyen, Brett Dahl, Scott Shpeley, Kris Unruh, Dean Stockdale, Graham Mothersill, Nadien Chu, Troy O’Donnell, Yassine El Fassi El Fihri

Where: Cristal Palace Spiegeltent at Edmonton EXPO Centre, 7515 118 Ave.

Running:  Aug. 8 to Sept. 3, Romeo and Juliet on all odd nights and even matinees, Twelfth Night on all even nights and odd matinees

Tickets: freewillshakespeare.com