Heart of America’s Twelfth Night goes over like a gin fizz
Whenever the summer heat turns oppressive — as it has in Kansas City already this summer — I reach for The Great Gatsby. Over the years, I’ve come to regard the novel less as an indictment of the Jazz Age’s shallow vanities than as a lament for its dearth of air conditioning. Weather reports choke the book. The heat stifles. The heat swelters. The heat drives gin-dehydrated lovers to dazed, sweaty blows.
A similar delirious energy fuels the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival’s production of Twelfth Night. Director Sidonie Garrett sets the comedy in the Roaring Twenties, transforming its well-worn comedic tropes — cross-dressing protagonists, mischievous servants, mistaken identities — into authentic midsummer madness.
The play follows twins Viola (Bree Elrod) and Sebastian (Ben Auxier) after a shipwreck separates them and strands them in the kingdom of Illyria. Fearing her brother dead, Viola dons male garb for protection and assumes the role of Cesario, servant to Illyria’s most eligible bachelor, Duke Orsino (Matthew J. Williamson). Viola quickly falls for the Duke — who pines for Olivia (Vanessa Severo) instead. Olivia quickly falls for Viola — whom the Duke has sent to woo Olivia on his behalf.
While the noblewomen spar and swoon, Olivia’s servants unite to humble Malvolio (Bruce Roach), a humorless steward with lofty ambitions. Skilled performances from Cinnamon Schultz, Jacques Roy and Scott Cordes amp up the humor in these scenes, though Garrett steers them toward exaggerated physical gags and extended mugging that at times undermines their good work.
Twelfth Night is a perilously plotted crowd-pleaser, and directorial choices in the opening scene lay a shaky foundation for its leaning tower of plot devices. Sunny lights flush the stage like an orange-juice commercial; Viola enters in a period swimsuit, toting a beach towel. The visuals suck all drama from the shipwreck, and Elrod, a talented actress, struggles tonally through Viola’s opening lines and discoveries (perhaps because she’s dressed for margs at the swim-up bar).
Still, Garrett’s direction is more often finely tuned, and the Jazz Age setting lends even the most plausibility-stretching antics a cheery Vaudevillian flair. The update also allows actors to entertain some not-so-Elizabethan manners, evoked most hilariously by Severo’s wry reading of Olivia, who here approaches love pelvis-first.
Williamson likewise benefits from a contemporary reading of Duke Orsino: His casual delivery and cool comedic timing carry the show’s biggest laughs, especially during his treatise on women’s hearts (“they lack retention”). Bruce Roach, the annual festival’s go-to villain (for good reason), shows off his comedy chops in a precise take on Malvolio. His version of the character is more awkward stuffed shirt than antagonist; we cringe instead of celebrate when he falls eagerly into his tormentors’ trap.
As Feste, Olivia’s fool, Phil Fiorini keeps the play’s too-frequent musical numbers from dragging the pace. Twelfth Night is thick with musical diversions, and composer Greg Mackender draws on multiple styles to keep the interludes fresh. Scenic designer Gene Emerson Friedman assists with a rotating center platform crowned with jazz pianist Bram Wjinands (outstanding as ever).
Costume designer Mary Traylor provides the strongest period anchors with glamorous flapper dresses (for Olivia) and checkered suits (for Viola and Sebastian), though a few pieces, like Maria’s flat blue dress, feel less carefully chosen. Lighting designer Ward Everhart infuses them with a handsome, oddly delicate palette of cool-toned moonbeams and lollipop pastels, and sound designer Rusty Wandall ensures that even latecomers in the lawn-chair nosebleeds can follow the action.
For all its subplots and diversions, Twelfth Night remains one of the Bard’s most accessible plays. And if the crowds at last Thursday’s performance are any indication, Heart of America’s production goes down smoother than jazz and gin. In past years, I’ve watch with some dismay as sore-bottomed festivalgoers packed up their picnic baskets at intermission. It’s a testament to the company’s success that, on an evening marked by Gatsby-grade heat, the park stayed full.
Twelfth Night
Through July 3 at Heart of America Shakespeare Festival
Southmoreland Park, 4598 Oak
816-531-7728
kcshakes.org
