Let us begin, dearest reader, with a pithy summary of the plot: Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s immortal take on mistaken identities and misprized love, has all sorts of twists and turns, the chief one being that a shipwrecked girl named Viola has decided to dress as a boy and pass herself off as th e eunuch Cesario, to avoid the usual hassles of being a lone female a foreign land. Her disguise — this being a comedy — works so well that a certain Countess Olivia falls in love with the “boy,” not realizing of course that she’s barking up the wrong tree. Elsewhere, we find Viola’s identical twin, Sebastian, who has washed up in the same town; over the course of the play, chaos ensues as Viola and Sebastian are mistaken for each other — only to rediscover each other as the play closes. If this sounds at all confusing, keep in mind that 1) the confusion is deliberate, it being half the point of the show, but 2) it’ll all come out in the wash.  Angelique Archer as Olivia and Summer England as Cesario in ‘Twelfth Night. Photo by Madison Patterson. The show also features moments of irony, which, when handled right, get a few extra chuckles along the way. Consider perhaps one of the most famous opening lines to any Shakespeare play, delivered by the self-absorbed Duke Orsino here: “If music be the food of love, play on….” Which is nice and all, but we forget that no sooner has Orsino rhapsodized about his favorite tune than he cuts the music off mid-phrase, leaving his servant Curio to mutter something about hunting, in a tone of voice that reflects his exasperation with the boss. (Darin F. Earl II’s line delivery, as Curio, is priceless.) Duke Orsino, played here with pride and just a touch of cluelessness by Topher Embry, is smitten with Countess Olivia — the equally prideful and equally clueless Angelique Archer. He sends his newly hired page Cesario (i.e., Viola) to press his suit with Olivia, but Cesario’s interview with the Countess backfires spectacularly. I mention the interview scene in particular because I had the wonderful opportunity to watch Lydia Sophia Christensen, the understudy for the role of Viola/Cesario, in action. Summer England, one of the mainstays at the American Shakespeare Center, was out for the evening, and Christensen had the role, and the stage to herself — and what a wonderful debut it was. (I’ll look forward to Summer England’s turn, which I’m sure will be dynamite, at a later date.) LEFT: Cast members; RIGHT: Blake Henri as Malvolio, in ‘Twelfth Night. Photos by Madison Patterson. What made Christensen’s Viola so memorable was its simplicity; there is a tradition among some actresses to add a few bits of boyish pantomime (pretending to wipe your nose on your sleeve, etc.) as part of Cesario’s schtick. That’s good for few laughs, but Christensen’s pageboy was simply Viola, dressed as a young man; and in that simplicity was a refreshing comic turn. It made Viola’s helplessness — when she realizes Olivia is in love with her Cesario get-up — that much more effective. There are a number of eccentric characters and comic turns to be enjoyed here; director Nana Dakin enables each of them to shine, and provides for some hilarious bits of stage business along the way. Olivia’s dour, puritanical steward Malvolio, played with gusto by Blake Henri, is just as vain and clueless as his boss, and equally certain (thanks to a certain forged letter) that Olivia is actually in love with him! The plot hatched against him by Olivia’s gentlewoman Maria (Angela Iannone, in one of her many classic comic turns) is one of the highlights of the show.  Malvolio’s discovery of that seemingly stray letter in Olivia’s garden, famous for so many reasons, gets a thorough makeover here. Dakin sees to it that those who eavesdrop on Malvolio as he reads the mock-letter aloud make full use of the stage, slithering this way and that to avoid detection. No review of Twelfth Night is complete without a shout-out to the party crew — led by the ebullient Christopher Seiler as Sir Toby Belch, that inveterate mooch with a bottomless thirst for booze, courtesy of his newfound, deep-pocketed, half-witted buddy Sir Andrew Aguecheek, well played by Justin McCombs, and accompanied musically by Isabel Lee Roden as Feste. Their escapades, with Iannone’s Maria as co-conspirator, make for some fine comic relief, replete with comical complications. In harmony with the gear-and-cog motif on the stage’s columns, costume designer Elizabeth Wislar decks out the cast in Clockpunk gear (topped off by begoggled hats), when not managing to blend certain costumes with the stage curtain to brilliant comic effect. And the musical selections range from the joyful — Seiler leads the house with the Doobie Brothers’ “Listen to the Music” and Barry Gordy’s “Money” — to the contemplative, with Darin F. Earl II’s soulful “Man of Constant Sorrow.” In theater, as in sports, the key to success may well lie in your starting players. But for the long haul, championship teams always boast a deep bench; players who shine the minute they are called up onto the field. The American Shakespeare Center’s bench is deep indeed. Running Time: Two hours and 15 minutes, including Intermission. Twelfth Night plays through May 3, 2026, in repertory with The Hound of the Baskervilles (through May 17) and Hannah Cowley’s Bold Stroke for a Husband (April 9 to May 2) presented by American Shakespeare Center at the Blackfriars Playhouse, 10 South Market Street, Staunton, VA. For tickets (starting at $39), call the box office at (540) 851-3400 or purchase them online. ASC also offers a Local Rush deal of 50% off tickets on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Learn more here. Cast and artistic team credits for Twelfth Night are online here. The spring season program is online here. The post The twists and turns shine in ‘Twelfth Night’ at American Shakespeare Center appeared first on DC Theater Arts. ...read more read less