Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” begins with a shipwreck. Twins Viola and Sebastian are tossed into the sea. Viola is saved. Sebastian is feared lost.
Brought to Illyria by her rescuers, Viola takes on the appearance of a boy, working as Cesario, a page to Illyria’s Duke Orsino. Now hold onto your hat, it gets a little confusing after that.
Orsino is in love with Countess Olivia, but she has forsworn male company. Viola falls in love with Orsino but of course can’t let him know. Olivia falls in love with Cesario – you know, Viola.
Orsino sends Cesario to court Olivia. Smitten with Cesario, Olivia sends her steward, Malvolio, after Cesario with a ring.
Meanwhile, Olivia’s servant Maria conspires with Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek to toy with Malvolio’s feelings for the countess. Maria writes a letter in Olivia’s handwriting, asking Malvolio to appear in cross-gartered yellow stockings and a smile to show his love for Olivia.
What follows is a farce complete with clowns and swords and pratfalls and mistaken identities and a resurrection of sorts.
No other local company does Shakespeare better than The Gamm, and this is one of their finest productions. A flat-out comedy and done so well.
The stage is set on a dock with two huge packing crates held up by block-and-tackle. The crates open to reveal the interior of two households – Orsino’s stage right and Olivia’s stage left.
When the lights come up, we’re greeted by Feste the Fool (Nora Eschenheimer), playing a folksy tune on a tiny guitar. When the song is done, she offers her hat to a patron in the front row, expecting a tip. Fourth wall? We don’t need no stinkin’ fourth wall!
Feste provides running commentary and musical interludes throughout the show and jumping into the play as well. Eschenheimer is a gifted performer and a delight to watch. She plays the guitar and the piano on stage and sings quite nicely. When I talked to her after the show, she admitted it had been a long time since she sang on stage or played the piano. She learned the guitar chords just for this show.
The main characters are nicely cast. Kelby T. Akin as the drunken Sir Toby Belch (one of Shakespeare’s favorite clowns). Rachel Dulude as the scheming Maria. Donnla Hughes as Countess Olivia. Michael Liebhauser as Sebastian. Cedric Lilly as Orsino. Jason Quinn as Fabian.
Then there’s Alison Russo playing the dual role of Viola and Cesario. Russo is quite convincing as a boy, wearing a short-hair wig and shapeless clothing. Loving a man who can’t know she’s a woman, and being loved by a woman who thinks she’s a man can be vexing, and Russo plays the confusion perfectly.
Let’s talk about Jeff Church as Agueecheek. One might call his character a dandy, and one would be right. Stuffy, arrogant but cowardly, and prone to pratfalls. He spends a good ten minutes inside a trunk downstage, with the lid snapped down on him, Three Stooges-style, by most of the characters in the show. He’s a laugh generator, and so good at what he does.
The maestro performance in “Twelfth Night” is delivered by Deb Martin as Malvolio. Malvolio is typically played by a man, but the Gamm is no stranger to gender-bending in Shakespeare. In their recent production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Martin played Oberon, king of the fairies. So, seeing her as Malvolio is no surprise.
She starts the show wrapped in black, for all the world a Renaissance Morticia Addams. Feste plays a funeral march for Malvolio’s entrances and exits. But after receiving Olivia’s letter – remember? the one written by Maria? – she transforms. Her reading of the letter is a high point of hilarity and earns Martin a round of applause as she exits.
In the second act, we witness a new Malvolio, entering wearing a huge yellow gown, looking like a giant daffodil, and of course wearing the yellow cross-gartered stockings and smiling painfully. She bends and moves as if she’s made of rubber and again earns a round of applause at her exit. Martin is a talented gifted actor with impeccable comic timing, and a certified scene stealer.
Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” is an absolutely fun and funny evening’s entertainment. Even if you’re not a fan of the Bard, you will be a fan of this comedy.
[The Gamm presents Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” through April 14 at their theater on Jefferson Boulevard in Warwick. For tickets and information, call the box office at 401.723.4266 or visit www.gammtheatre.org.]
[And for full disclosure, yours truly appeared in the Gamm’s “Midsummer” with Martin, Eschenheimer and Liebhauser.]
