“What was the most foolish thing you’ve ever done for love?” read sticky notes that adorned the Arthur Miller Theatre ticket booth. Equally creative, humorous, and heartbreaking, answers included “Dressed as a gentleman and pretended to be a eunuch,” and “Fell in love with a girl who was pretending to be a man.” If this sounds like Shakespeare’s comedic drama “Twelfth Night” to you, then you’re correct!
“Twelfth Night,” a play appropriate for Halloween with its disguises and mistaken identities, actually refers to the festival that traditionally occurs at the end of the 12 days of Christmas. On this particular night, well-off citizens would become servants and enjoy the “low-class” revelry, such as cross-dressing, copious amounts of eating and drinking, and un-Christian merriment. Likewise, servants would act as masters for “just a little while.” Keeping this in mind, Shakespeare drops his audience plop down in a world where people don’t act as society says they should. Love can cause blindness, danger, and also, hilarious situations.
The play, performed this past weekend by the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, begins when Viola (Carol Gray) finds herself on the coast of Illyria, having survived a shipwreck that she believes has killed her twin brother, Sebastian (Richard Graham). She disguises herself as a man and calls herself Cesario in order to acquire work serving Illyria’s Duke Orsino (Greg Kovas). But, she soon falls in love with Orsino, who has ordered her to court Countess Olivia (Kaela Parnicky) on his behalf. Olivia, is in mourning and has refused to see any suitors for seven years, until Cesario comes and awakes Olivia’s lustful appetite.
With such a complex web of many love triangles, you could easily find yourself drifting in and out as if you were lost at sea, waiting for a perfectly timed slapstick fall or jibe by the drunken Sir Toby Belch (Jeff Miller) or adorkable Andrew Aguecheek (Chris Grimm) to reel you back in to the plot. But director Kat Walsh and set designer Nathan Doud made the play visually accessible with the set design, especially with the use of tableaus. As the curtain raised up for the first time, we saw three large frames from which the actors exited or entered the stage. It looked as if we were watching a “living museum.” Think of the Museum of Living History from Gilmore Girls.
The tableaus allowed the primary characters of the upcoming scene to be artfully displayed, as if in a painting, while others first spoke of them. It worked really well, especially given the play’s theme that there is always more than meets the eye.
Walsh made use of her actors’ musical talents: both Carol Gray (Viola) and Richard Graham (Sebastian) play violin, so they began the play with a harmonious duet. It must be a twin thing! Also, Dory Mead (Feste) sang with such power and sweet emotion that gave me goosebumps. Her songs were so beautiful and indeed almost characters themselves, despite their sometimes depressing and morbid themes.
The actors gave outstanding performances that dialed up feelings of pathos and joy, love and embarrassment; feelings that all humans have experienced and could relate to, as seen at the posting wall outside of the theatre, where audience members could write their own answers to the original question of “What was the most foolish thing you’ve ever done for love?” Walsh and her Ann Arbor Civic Theatre team have achieved the timelessness of Shakespeare. I can’t wait to see if they will try another Shakespeare in the future. If you’re interested in upcoming A2CT performances, check out their website: www.a2ct.org.
