REVIEW: Cross-Dressed & Cross-Gartered: Twelfth Night @ Cleveland Play House

 

By Elsa Johnson & Victor Lucas

We went to see Twelfth Night at Cleveland Play House last Friday, Shakespeare’s comedy of cross-dressing, cross-garters, and mistaken identity transported to the Mississippi Delta of 1917, complete with original period blues, country, and folk music. For us — and, judging from their smiles and laughter, our fellow audience members — it was everything a Shakespeare comedy should be, a springboard for talented performers and genuinely funny after 400 years.

Surveying the 150 seats on 3 sides of the set in the Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre before the show, we couldn’t have been far from the action if we had tried. We had forgotten our ear plugs, standard equipment for any show with amplified music, but not to worry, for soon into the porches of our ears did pour the sweet sounds of acoustic blues, played and sung live by Stephen Michael Spencer as Feste, the clown.

This was the most musically satisfying production of Shakespeare that we can remember and much of the credit goes to Spencer who accompanied himself on guitar and banjo with singing, dancing, and — bring on the old razzle dazzle — a hat trick! Therese Anderberg as Viola played a little guitar and the whole cast joined in from, initially, off stage in a hearty call and response version of “Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain.”

We were also concerned that this production follow through on its choice of place and time. Easy enough to cover everything with artificial kudzu and Spanish moss, but what about the southern accents? Spread on too thick, they’d be unintelligible. And not every actor can sustain a regional accent.

But again we needn’t have worried. Anderberg’s Viola held her inner southern belle severely in check; perhaps her character’s not even from the South. In contrast, the down home good-old-boys, Sir Toby Belch played by Bernard Bygott and Sir Andrew Aguecheek played by Jason Leupold, layered their accents on thick from beginning to end of every scene and nevertheless made their lines richly intelligible and hilarious.

The story told by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night turns on the shipwrecked Viola’s decision to dress as a man while she searches for her look-alike twin brother Sebastian. Shakespeare and company would have had a relatively easy time with that kind of premise since their women characters were played by boys dressed as women.

Contemporary productions of Shakespeare’s cross-dressing comedies usually rely on the audience’s suspension of disbelief as did Anderberg, whose Viola neither deepened her voice nor changed her body language in order to disguise herself as “an eunuch.” And it was in the reactions of the other actors — Drew Derek’s Count Orsino and Christa Meyers’ Olivia — that the audience was rewarded for their suspension of disbelief. Meyers’ Olivia was particularly rewarding to watch — and listen to — as she fell in love, her unusually resonant voice ardent (one of several interesting voices in this production, Bygott’s Sir Toby’s amazing instrument also noteworthy).

This production included another cross-dressed role, one not called for in Shakespeare’s text. Sarah Kinsey is double cast as Maria, Olivia’s maid, and Antonio, the deadly sea captain. Obviously female despite chin whiskers, a man’s hat, and huge overalls, Kinsey’s Antonio nevertheless projected a credible male aura, especially when she took up arms against Sir Toby.

Credit Fight Director Ron Wilson for the understated but effective dueling scenes.

With a final nod to TJ Gainley for excellence as the insufferable Malvolio.

Twelfth Night runs Wed 10/23 thru Sat 10/26 at 7:30 pm with an additional 3pm show on Saturday. Tickets HERE or by phone 216-241-6000 or 866-546-1353.

[Photo by Roger Mastroianni]

 

From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.

 

 

Cleveland, OH 44115

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