Theater review: Fun and funny ‘Twelfth Night’ at College of Marin
Separated twins, intentional deception, mistaken identities, palace intrigue, plenty of gender-bending, lots of drunken antics and adroit stagecraft combine to make Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” a delightful diversion at College of Marin’s James Dunn Theatre, through March 19.
The setup involves twins Viola (Hunter Candrian-Velez) and her brother Sebastian (Grisha Driscoll), who survive a shipwreck in the Adriatic Sea but reach shore far apart. Assisted by the ship’s captain, Viola arrives in Illyria, on the eastern side of the Adriatic, where she disguises herself as a boy named Cesario and enlists as an aide to Count Orsino (Zane Speiser). Orsino’s hopelessly in thrall with the Countess Olivia (Moss Fallat), in protracted mourning over the death of her brother. She refuses to entertain any suitors.
In a parallel but essential plot device, Viola believes that her own brother drowned in the wreck, but unknown to her, Sebastian has survived and has been befriended by a soldier named Antonio (Bradley Markwick-Coe), who gallantly agrees to escort him to Illyria despite prior disputes with Orsino. A subplot involves a secondary character named Malvolio (here changed to Malvolia, well-played by Iris Stone) whose pursuit of Olivia is an amusing exercise in comedic frustration, exacerbated by several devious Illyrians. All performers — primary, secondary and incidental — deliver more than satisfying efforts.
The show rolls out on an elegant set, a temple of theater by the inimitable Ron Krempetz, among the most talented set designers in the Bay Area, and is helmed by Molly Noble, former motive force of the Porchlight Theatre Co., specializing in plays of the 18th and 19th centuries. Prolific sound designer Billie Cox contributes some of her own compositions as well as includes a tantalizing array of jazz standards from the first half of the 20th century, used almost entirely as interstitial or background music — perhaps disappointing to some music fans, but a benefit in that if they were played in their entirety the production would run far longer than its approximately two-and-a-half hours including intermission.
The brilliant opening equals anything done by a well-endowed modern dance troupe, with several white-clad occupants of the doomed ship acting out the disaster that launches the plot. The opening scene is stark and arresting, and so well done that it establishes aspirational energy sustaining the entire production — a rare and difficult theatrical phenomenon.
Noble gets a rousing performance from her large cast, a mix of COM students and veteran actors, all of whom turn in performances ranging from good to exemplary. There’s not a bobbled line or missed mark anywhere, an admirable standard of professionalism achieved by many COM productions.
Primary characters are riveting, especially Speiser as the pretentious Orsino, who alternates between lackadaisical stupor and loud stentorian pronouncements. Fallat is confident as Countess Olivia, who in Noble’s interpretation may swing both ways — not implied in Shakespeare’s original, but not out of the question given that the comedy involves a lot of cross-dressing and assumptions of opposite-gender identity, not to mention the consumption of prodigious quantities of alcohol.
In some ways, “Twelfth Night” good-naturedly presages our current era’s non-binary trend. In the Bard’s time, female roles were performed by boys. With a degree of creative license, Noble takes this a step further in making Olivia’s rejected suitor a woman, a bit of contemporaneity with potential to irk traditionalists. On the other hand, the gambit may not be all that different from performing Shakespeare in modern dress.
Christopher Hammond is hilarious as the drunken bellowing buffoon Sir Toby Belch, matched in ridiculousness by lanky Connor Farrell as Sir Toby’s erratic sidekick Sir Andrew Aguecheek. North Bay veteran performer Ellen Brooks is a hoot as Feste, Orsino’s court fool and the audience’s point-of-view character.
A surprise is Iris Stone as Malvolia. Stone has a commanding presence, a strong voice and confident demeanor even as her character endures ludicrous and humiliating circumstances.
The James Dunn Theatre is the best physical plant in Marin County, one beautifully used in this production, but its cavernous backstage has a way of swallowing some dialog. Shakespeare’s speech can be difficult for moderns, especially when some of it is acoustically muddled, but that doesn’t detract from the entertainment value this “Twelfth Night” delivers.
The plot is convoluted to say the least. Showgoers are encouraged to read the Wikipedia entry just so they know who is who and what is what. Not to give anything away — “Twelfth Night” is among Shakespeare’s most popular and well-known comedies — but in the end, the twins are reunited, the deception is unveiled, two or three couples plan to be wed and everyone lives happily ever after. And despite some modest swordplay, no blood is spilled.
Visually dazzling and well-paced, this “Twelfth Night” is fun, funny and a rewarding few hours in the theater.
Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com
IF YOU GO
What: Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”
Where: James Dunn Theatre, College of Marin, 835 College Ave., Kentfield campus
When: Through March 19; 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. this weekend
Admission: $10 to $20
Information: pa.marin.edu/tickets
Rating (out of five stars): ★★★ 1/2