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Reviewed by:
  • Coriolanus, and; King Lear, and; Twelfth Night
  • Amy M. Green
Coriolanus Presented by the Utah Shakespearean Festival at the Adams Shakespeare Theater, Cedar City, Utah. June 21-September 1, 2007. Directed by Henry Woronicz. Scenic Design by Bill Forrester. Costumes by Claudia Stephens. Lighting by Donna Ruzika. Sound by Joe Payne. Dramaturg Michael Flachmann. Dialect by Philip Thompson. Fights by Christopher Villa. Stage Manager Karen K. Wegner. With James Newcomb (Coriolanus), Michael Sharon (Aufidius), Leslie Brott (Volumnia), Dan Frezza (Menenius), Kate Cook (Virgilia), Raymond L. Chapman (Velutus), Michael David Edwards (Brutus), Phil Hubbard (Cominius), Mic Matarrese (Lartius), Jane Noseworthy (Valeria), Alex Niemela and Noah Strasmann (Young Martius), and others.
King Lear Presented by the Utah Shakespearean Festival at the Adams Shakespeare Theater, Cedar City, Utah. June 21-September 1, 2007. Directed by J.R. Sullivan, Scenic Design by Bill Forrester. Costume Design by David Kay Mickelsen. Lighting by Donna Ruzika. Sound by Joe Payne. Dramaturg Michael Flachmann. Dialect by Philip Thompson. Fights by Christopher Villa. Stage Manager Catherine Grant Saxon. With Dan Kremer (Lear), Kieran Connolly (Gloucester), James Newcomb (Kent), Raymond L. Chapman (Edmund), Shawn Fagan (Edgar), Timothy Casto (Fool), Shelly Gaza (Cordelia), Carole Healey (Goneril), Anne Newhall (Regan), Jed Peterson (Oswald), Craig Lee Thomas (Burgundy), John Oswald (Albany), Ryan Schabach (King of France), and others.
Twelfth Night Presented by the Utah Shakespearean Festival at the Auditorium Theatre, Cedar City, Utah. June 21-September 1, 2007. Directed by B.J. Jones. Scenic Design by Bill Forrester. Costumes by Janet L. Swenson. Lighting by Donna Ruzika. Sound by Joe Payne. Dramaturg Michael Flachmann. Dialect by Philip Thompson. Fights by Christopher Villa. Choreography by Kirsten Sham. Stage Manager Becky Merold. With Michael Sharon (Orsino), Elisabeth Adwin (Olivia), Shelly Gaza (Viola), Jered Tanner (Feste), Phil Hubbard (Sir Toby Belch), Donald Sage Mackay (Malvolio), Michael David Edwards (Sir Andrew), Anne Newhall (Maria), Ryan Schabach (Sebastian), Mic Matarrese (Sebastian), and others.

The forty-sixth season of the Utah Shakespearean Festival's summer season featured Coriolanus, King Lear, and Twelfth Night. The Festival also presented a selection of plays and musicals not authored by Shakespeare. This year's non-Shakespearean productions included the premiere of Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical, The Matchmaker, and Candida which are not reviewed here. Outstanding performances and production values marked Coriolanus, King Lear, and Twelfth Night. Although diverse as to genre and storyline, these three plays shared at their core the theme of love. In Coriolanus, the titular character's love for the martial surpassed nearly all else. King Lear featured filial and paternal love at the center of its tragedy. Finally, Twelfth Night celebrated the transformative nature of romantic love.

Coriolanus, one of Shakespeare's less frequently produced plays, proved a timely choice given the current rancorous political situation in this country. Despite its strong political undercurrent, this production of Coriolanus emerged as a character study of one man's love for soldiery and warfare. James Newcomb gave an expert performance in the lead role. His Coriolanus swaggered, boasted, and laughed while amongst his fellow soldiers and his body language spoke of a man completely at ease in his role as a soldier far removed from the peasantry. Once forced to wear sackcloth and plead for the "voices" of the common people, Newcomb's Coriolanus visibly changed, his contempt for being the focus of such spectacle was palpable as he struggled to maintain his composure. However, Newcomb never allowed his performance to cross into caricature, a risk with a character so bold in emotion and deed as Coriolanus. Coriolanus's separation from the common citizenry was further illustrated through the color palette of the costumes. Where the citizens were clad in pale [End Page 107] or pastel hues, Volumnia in royal purple, Virgilia in pink, and Aufidius in tan, Coriolanus through most of the play wore black and white, with the striking addition of a red cape as he returned triumphant from the campaign against Corioles.


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Figure 1.

James Newcomb (left) as Caius Martius Coriolanus and Michael Sharon as Tullus Aufidius and in the Utah Shakespearean Festival's 2007 production of Coriolanus. (Photo by Karl Hugh. Copyright Utah Shakespearean Festival...

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