Written by William Shakespeare, Directed by Walt Jones

Turnabout is fair play, especially in a Shakespeare comedy. So what if the original cast of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare,  rich tapestry of illusion, was male.  In a play that hinges on disguise, androgyny seems to fit like a costume.  Set on the night of Epiphany, which Elizabethan England celebrated as a mid-winter romp where rules were broken, loves confessed and wrongs repaid, the comedy encourages such artful transformations. Thus, our version, with LIVE music, feature an all-female cast, in late Victorian times, at the British Music Hall.

The fascinating sexual ambiguity plays out in a love triangle between Orsino, Olivia, and Viola (dressed as a youth), while Olivia’s clever jester Feste accompanies the action at a baby grand piano, giving bleary, cynical, Vegas-style comedic performance. Whiskery, bursting-at-the-seams Sir Toby, and an Ichabod buffoonery of men’s “types.”

Click to read the Twelfth Night Program.

Photos