Great Lakes Theater’s ‘Twelfth Night’ Turns Contradictions Into a Complex Comedy

Maria (actor, Jessie Cope Miller*) chastises Feste (actor, Theo Allyn*) as Olivia (actor, Ángela Utrera*) mourns with Malvolio (actor, Joe Wegner*) in the Great Lakes Theater production of Twelfth Night at the Hanna Theatre, Playhouse Square, running through April 6. Credit: (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)

Were I to tell you that “Twelfth Night” begins with a shipwrecked woman gasping for air and mourning her drowned twin brother, you would hardly believe that the show is a comedy. William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” is a play of dichotomies. While it is known for mistaken identities, gender-bending, pranks and complicated love triangles, the underlying current that drives the action and characters is loss and longing.

Great Lakes Theater’s production of “Twelfth Night” embraces these dichotomies; the feminine and masculine, the serious and the absurd, the morose and the joyful. This results in a comedy that stretches beyond farce to take audiences on a whimsical but layered journey of loss, love and laughter.

After Viola washes ashore on Illyria after a shipwreck, she disguises herself as a man and is enlisted in the service of a Duke, with whom she begins to fall in love. However, the Duke is infatuated with Olivia, a countess who is deep in mourning and will not consider his advances. As the disguised Viola delivers unrequited love letters from her master to the Duke, Olivia finds herself enraptured with the messenger rather than the message.

Occurring alongside the messy love triangle is an adjacent plot line following the pranking antics of Olivia’s staff and kinsman. Leading a trio of schemers is Sir Toby Belch, Olivia’s uncle. He commissions his bumbling friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek, the clever gentlewoman Maria and the fool Feste to play a trick on Malvolio, Olivia’s pompous steward.

The show takes place on Courtney O’Neill’s scenic design of wooden boards that rise and fall in layered sweeping arcs that mimic waves and dunes, merging the hard and soft. Rick Martin lights the waves from underneath with all manners of colors that dim and brighten like the ebb and flow of tides. The lap of waves and surges of captivating vocals redolent of sad siren songs swell to life between scenes, courtesy of sound designer and composer Matthew Webb.

Costume designer Mieka van der Ploeg clothes the players in beautifully constructed suits—and bathing suits—in a hodgepodge collection of colors, patterns and styles that cannot be claimed by a single time period. The way that the ties, bathers and cod pieces are both feminine yet masculine, serious yet fantastical, old yet new, is another way in which the production embraces a sort of twofold nature.

While Great Lakes Theater repurposed this set design from their earlier production of “Peter and the Starcatcher” where it depicted the decks of pirate ships and waves, it works well as the coast of Illyria. This production uses the seaside setting almost as a character in itself. The coastal setting fuels amusing interactions, whether that be the donning of neon orange flippers to lounge in a wading pool or the reluctant lathering of sunscreen on a flirtatious countess.

These hilarious interactions demonstrate the experience and understanding of Shakespeare that director Sara Bruner, Great Lakes Theater’s producing artistic director, brings to the production. The actors feel comfortable with the prose, and their inflections, movements and expressions lend context and hilarity to Shakespeare’s witty script.

Grayson Heyl as Viola is lovable in her gender-bent awkwardness and confusion, especially during lust-charged interactions with Olivia and the Duke. Heyl manages to deftly move through sorrow to joy and back again. Ángela Utrera is adorably charming as the fierce and smitten countess Olivia while Jeremy Gallardo as Duke Orsino is convincingly starry-eyed and love-stricken.

Dar’Jon Marquise Bentley supplies plenty of comedic relief with his cheerful, passionate portrayal of Sir Toby Belch. James Alexander Rankin as Sir Andrew Aguecheek is fittingly over-zealous and dramatic while Jessie Cope Miller as the sassy, tough, perpetually gum-chewing Maria has an amazing stage presence. Joe Wegner as the pretentious Malvolio, complete with a bombastic accent and aristocratic mannerisms, is exceptionally entertaining. Additional well-cast actors include Nic Scott Hermick and Evan Stevens as Sebastian and Antonio, respectively. These two share an especially interesting rapport.

Theo Allyn as Feste is mysterious and enjoyable, and their voice is captivating in their various songs throughout the show. These songs, which are intended as lessons and advice for the characters, are given heavy, wistful treatment in Great Lakes Theater’s production. This hints again at the sadness and discontent that brought the characters together in the first place.

While it’s true that this staging of “Twelfth Night” is cute and comedic as well as witty and whimsical, it would be a disservice to stop at these descriptors. Where other productions may brush past the melancholic undertones of the story, director Bruner gives them moments to breathe. This is exemplified best with choices made at the end of the show; such as when a trio of characters leave the stage with grimaces instead of smiles, and when emphasis is placed on the somewhat somber reconnection of two characters rather than newfound marital bliss.

Great Lakes Theater’s “Twelfth Night” is complex and at times contradictory, but so are the relationships between love, loss and humor that drive Shakespeare’s scripts—the very same relationships that have kept his work relevant for hundreds of years.

“Twelfth Night” runs through April 6 at the Hanna Theatre, 2067 E 14th St, Cleveland. Visit greatlakestheater.org or call (216) 241-6000 for tickets, $15-$89.

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