Theater Review - Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Maria Aitken

Where: Thompson Theatre at the RoselleCenter for the Arts

(University of Delaware, Newark, DE)

When:  Thursday, April 19, 7:30pm

Photos throughout by Nadine Howatt / REP

Yes, it's purportedly uncouth to review a play before it opens, but unlike Broadway where previews last upwards of a month, there are only two previews of the University of Delaware's Resident Ensemble Players' production of Twelfth Night, so one has to imagine that things are pretty much as locked in as they're going to be.  Add to that, the average number of readers per post here is a measly seven people and there's not a whole lot of need to hold back a review.  Since this is likely going to be the first review posted of this production -- which will transfer to Brooklyn's Theatre for a New Audience with the entire cast and set intact immediately following its run at the REP -- I wish I could heap huge plaudits upon it, but I can't quite go that far.

Perhaps the REP spoiled all future Shakespeare productions for me with their gloriously magical A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2010 and their equally powerful 2013 Hamlet, but Twelfth Night just didn't quite hit the mark.  Tony-nominated director Maria Aitken makes her third appearance at the REP and, as a director, I think she succeeds here most of the time, although a few directorial flourishes cause the production to falter a bit.  Surprisingly, these flourishes are probably what make the play most like a production that would have occurred during the era of the playwright and yet in the modern era, they didn't quite click for this viewer.

The bulk of the play revolves around a case of mistaken identity.  Viola (Susanna Stahlmann) washes ashore on the island of Illyria after a horrific shipwreck that seemingly has left her twin brother Sebastian (John Skelley) presumably drowned at sea.  With the help of self-professed fool Feste (Joshua David Robinson), Viola disguises herself as a man named Cesario and gains work at the feet of Duke Orsino (Matthew Greer).  Orsino is pining over Olivia (REP's Elizabeth Heflin), but she wants nothing to do with Orsino especially since she is grieving over the death of her brother.  Orsino sends Cesario to try and woo Olivia for him, but Olivia ends up falling for Cesario who in turn is slowly falling for Orsino.  This love triangle causes a bit of chaos that is only amplified when Sebastian arrives in Illyria and his similar look to the now-dressed-as-a-man Viola creates much confusion.

This particular plot thread of Twelfth Night is still likely as much of a success today as it was in Shakespeare's time.  Misses Stahlmann and Heflin and Misters Greer and Skelley all prove captivating and manage to make this far-fetched plot seem believable somehow.  Stahlmann in particular holds our attention as Viola wavers in her attempts to be masculine, capturing comedy in her awkwardness and making us feel for her plight of being stuck in this foreign land unable to let her true self shine.

The problem here lies in the subplot revolving around a cadre of fools and their attempt to make Olivia's strict and self-righteous steward Malvolio (REP's Stephen Pelinski) pay for his uppity attitude.  Malvolio, you see, is also secretly pining for Olivia, and because of this, Olivia's maid Maria (Kate Forbes), Olivia's uncle Sir Toby Belch (REP's Lee Ernst), and family friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek (REP's Michael Gotch) hatch a plan to embarrass Malvolio and cause him to think he is slowly losing his mind.  This storyline is most certainly one that appealed to the lower classes in Shakespeare's time -- the underlings usurping the upper classes through silly ingenuity -- but it simply feels like padding in this day and age.  Forbes, Ernst, and Gotch go all in on the humor aspect and what makes this whole complaint sad for this reviewer is that they all do an excellent job in bringing their characters' seedy motivations to light.  Unfortunately, this tedious plotline leads to very little payoff despite sharing nearly equal stage time with the aforementioned love triangle.  In defense of Aitken and the production, I'm not quite sure what could've been done here to make this anymore successful.  The cast is game...it's just that Shakespeare's plot doesn't resonate.

I do think Aitken falters a bit with how she presents the fool Feste.  Feste's minstrel-like songs that pepper the theatrical production certainly would've been successes in Shakespeare's time, but feel oddly out of place here.  Similarly, a second act scene involving an imprisoned Malvolio and a disguised Feste comes off almost uncomfortable with Feste taking on an over-the-top reverend persona that doesn't jibe with everything else that we've seen heretofore on the stage. 

The Mediterranean-esque set by Lee Savage is beautiful to look upon and the costumes by Candice Donnelly also add much to the proceedings.  I also must admit that I enjoyed the co-production aspect of this in that it brought some new blood the REP's standard troupe.  I've been longing for years for the REP to get back to its roots and return to being a theatrical training program for students.  While that seemingly won't happen, at least bringing in some fresh faces in this way added that sense of newness I've hoped for.

While Twelfth Night wasn't quite the success I'd hoped it would be, it's certainly not the Shakespearean tragedy (in more ways than one) that was the REP's ill-conceived 2014 production of Macbeth.  I do think the bigger issues I have with this piece stem from Shakespeare's words themselves rather than anything created for this particular production.  Yet, as is often the case with what the REP brings to us, I appreciate seeing things like this for the low price that the REP offers simply because it opens my eyes to things I wouldn't typically pay to see on a much more expensive Broadway stage.