Shakespeare By The Sea’s 31st summer season re-opens tonight in Point Pleasant Park after COVID cases forced the company to cancel nearly a week of performances during excellent weather – “tis true, tis pity.”
This season features Alice in Wonderland the Musical and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, which opened triumphantly last Friday night with a huge audience. But the next day four out of the eight-member cast developed COVID symptoms and tested positive the following day.
Twelfth Night, on to Aug. 30, is led by Amaka Umeh in their largest Shakespearean lead since playing Hamlet in the Stratford Festival’s acclaimed production in 2022. Umeh is joined onstage by Zach Colangelo, returning to SBTS for her second season, as the witty clown Feste. Colangelo sparked up SBTS crowds last summer as the Fox in Pinocchio and Nurse/Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet. This Twelfth Night, adapted and directed by Drew Douris-O’Hara, is inspired by early 20th century vaudeville theatres.
Umeh is also the evil Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland the Musical, on to Aug. 31. SBTS’ resident artist Jade Douris-O’Hara is Alice. An audience favourite at SBTS since 2016 and a five-time Merritt Award nominee, Douris-O’Hara shone as Juliet in last year’s Romeo and Juliet.
This year’s acting company also features returning favourites Chris George, Patrick Jeffrey and Raeesa Lalani and newcomers Matt Lacas (Festival Antigonish, Theatre Baddeck) and Daniel Nwobi, making his professional Nova Scotia theatre debut.
Shakespeare by the Sea is Atlantic Canada’s long-running outdoor theatre. See http://www.shakespearebythesea.ca for tickets and more information. Both shows start at 7 pm. and are staged at the Cambridge Battery, about a 15-minute walk into the Park (vehicular transport provided if pre-booked.)
The full company of Alice in Wonderland the Musical. (Stoo Metz photo)
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Tags: alice-in-wonderland, covid, halifax, news, shakespeare, shakespeare-by-the-sea, theatre, twelfth-night, william-shakespeare
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