Twelfth Night
Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley
Foolish Production Company at The Broadwater
Through April 3
Clocking in at a one-hour running time, Foolish Production Co.’s production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” could be subtitled “Breezy Does It.”
As the audience enters the sub-30 seat venue, the cast, clad in casual beach attire, roams about a tiny stage that is festooned with blow-up palm trees and kiddie pools while upbeat music from the 1950s blasts. It’s our tip-off that this is the Kingdom of Illyria by way of the Copacabana. You can almost smell the Coppertone.
Director Mikey Mulhearn is co-credited as Shakepeare’s “Rescriptor,” and, of course, if you aim to trim the text to this brevity, you must slash and burn without reservation. Among the many edits, the character of the wise fool Feste has been completely axed. Gone, also, is sea captain Antonio’s apparent betrayal by his pal Sebastian, when he is denied by Sebastian’s cross-dressed twin Olivia and placed under arrest on a previous piracy charge. And there’s not a hint of Sir Toby Belch’s romantic byplay and subsequent marriage to Maria.
A spirit of in-your-face revisionism infuses Mulhearn’s staging, especially evident in the casting of petite Sarah Hinchcliff, sporting a prop moustache, by way of the Fuller Brush Company, as the love-besotted Duke Orsino. And although Mulhearn’s cast ranges from the excellent to the adequate, that audacity serves the evening well – at least mostly.
As Olivia, the object of Orsino’s amorous pursuit, Libby Wahlmeier verges on caricature — and it works. Her Olivia is a spoiled Daddy’s girl, accustomed to getting exactly what she wants – and what she wants is the new addition to Orsino’s court, Cesario (Viola in drag of course.) Olivia’s attraction to Cesario is far from the awakening of a gentle lady to the possibilities of love. Hers is unabashed horniness, done by Wahlmeier to a comical nicety.
Kat Landreth pitches her Viola is in a more traditional Shakespearean vein, but does full service to her role, truncated though it may be. Lindsay Mayberry’s Maria is a serviceable schemer who plots the foolish Malvolio’s (gratifyingly bombastic Nick Molari) due comeuppance. In another example of the production’s no-holds-barred friskiness, Malvolio not only wears cross-gartered yellow stockings, but strips down to reveal several-sizes-too-small gold lamé panties that make us wonder whether we should start throwing dollar bills on the stage.
Unfortunately, Mulhearn misses several obvious bets along the way. Zoo Holmstróm’s Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother, seems more wooden than swash-buckling; Hector Zapata’s Sir Toby rushes his lines to the point of incoherence; and Brandon Doyle skims along the surfaces of Sir Andrew Aguecheeks’ comical possibilities — all shortcomings that could have been at least partially addressed directorially.
Yet it’s all in the spirit of fun — a Shakespeare-light diversion that is as buoyant as the beach balls the actors lob at one another. (Note: The company’s hour-long version of “Measure for Measure” also plays at this venue through the weekend.)
Foolish Production Company at The Broadwater, 1078 Lillian Way, Hlywd.; Sunday, April 2, 7:30 p.m.; Monday, April 3, 8 p.m.; thru April 3. www.foolishproductionco.org/buy-tickets Running time: 1 hour with no intermission.
