‘Twelfth Night’ @ Fair Assembly
Photos by Shafkat Anowar
—Jan Farrington
What is love? ‘Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter
What’s to come is still unsure….
Actor-run Shakespeare company Fair Assembly is back for another run in one of their best venues, the converted church at Arts Mission Oak Cliff—with a Twelfth Night full of music, shipwrecks, guitars, sword play, drunken brawls, practical “jokes,” false imprisonment, true love…and plenty of pratfalls, leaps, and rolls. [Ed. note—because I am leaving town, I caught an “invited dress rehearsal” the night before opening.]
Co-directed by Sara Romersberger and Mac Welch, the play keeps a lively pace, and twists and turns in more than a few directions…but let’s begin with Viola.
Poor Viola. Shipwrecked far from her homeland, missing her presumed-dead (but we know better) brother, Shakespeare doesn’t even give her the comfort of the girl cousin or best friend he usually sends along on these adventures—to give sensible advice and keep up the cheeky banter.
Alas, she is alone. And in Twelfth Night Viola jumps to the usual easy fix: I’ll dress like a boy for a while (subtext: men being what they are).
We think we’ve seen this plot before…but not so fast. Fair Assembly’s clear-eyed rendering of Shakespeare’s play (a comedy with a fat asterisk) keeps us guessing to the last minute about the chance of some happy endings. Below the rom-com parlor floor of the palaces and mansions where the gentry live, there’s an edgier, grittier world, with an in-your-face brand of comedy that doesn’t pull its punches.
But back to our Viola.
Played with bemused humor by Emily Ernst, Viola has charm to spare for both sexes, in the way of cute boys on the edge of manhood—a Shakespeare specialty, given the tenor-voiced young guys he had lounging around the Globe waiting to play Juliet and Rosalind.
Right away, Viola/Cesario is the new best friend of local ruler Duke Orsino (broad-shouldered Jon Garrard), who sends him/her to woo the hard-to-get lady Olivia (Betsy Roth) who’s rejected him before.
The lady claims to be in mourning for her own brother, but it takes a hot minute for the slinky, hold-my-veil Olivia to fall for Cesario—even sending him a ring in hopes he’ll visit again to return it. Viola’s surprised “oh, no!” soliloquoy is a great bit of playwriting:
I left no ring with her. What means this lady?
Fortune forbid my outside have not charmed her.
She made good view of me; indeed, so much
That, as methought, her eyes had lost her tongue,
For she did speak in starts distractedly.
She loves me sure,…I am the man….
How will this fadge? My master loves her dearly;
And I (poor monster) fond as much on him;
And she (mistaken) seems to dote on me.
What will become of this? As I am man,
My state is desperate for my master’s love.
As I am woman (Now alas the day!),
What thriftless sighs will poor Olivia breathe?
In Countess Olivia’s house are the upstairs folks and the downstairs crew (aka high & low comedy). Downstairs includes Olivia’s carousing, hard-drinking uncle Sir Toby Belch (Austin Tindle); his equally rowdy friend, the acrobatic Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Christian Taylor); and Olivia’s “woman” (lady’s maid? housekeeper?) Maria (Caitlin Chapa), who has her eye on Sir Toby. (Btw, watch for all the people in this class-conscious play who “marry up.”)
There’s the clown/fool/singer Feste (David Helms), a light manner masking his clever eyes; and all-purpose sidekick Fabian (Lauren Hayden Jordan). Owen Davis plays a sea captain, priest, and officer, with Ava Robb and Sidney Floyd on duty with him.
Olivia’s stuffed-shirt steward Malvolio (Blake Hametner preens and poses, and don’t they all loathe him!) spends as much time as he can upstairs with the posh folk, but comes down regularly to issue orders and do some tongue-lashing.
The main story line involves the mixed-up romantic triangle of Viola-Orsino-Olivia—plus the separate adventures of Olivia’s not-dead brother Sebastian (Eduardo Velez III) and the seafaring warrior Antonio (Brian Gibson) who rescued Seb from the sea and can’t stop crushing on him.
It’s also the saga of how Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Feste and mastermind Maria take revenge on bossy, bad-tempered Malvolio. Maria’s plan for him is inventive, makes Malvolio look crazy and ridiculous in front of Olivia—and lands him in a tight spot.
As a practical joke, the scheme goes from funny to nuclear in short order. The plotters are howling with laughter, and though we don’t like Malvolio either, we begin to wonder if Will Shakes isn’t taking things too dark. But Shakespeare was never a timid playwright. He understood that “present laughter” comes in all colors and emotions—from Viola’s joyful laugh to Toby’s vengeful one. And in Twelfth Night, Shakespeare was again expanding our notion of what a comedy could be.
In sum: This is a great cast having a great time. Huzzah to the players and the creative team—fight choreo by Romersberger; good tunes for Shakespeare’s lyrics from composer Ivan Dillard; Breianna Bairrington’s jaunty costumes; and Joshua Manning’s lighting effects—especially the shipwreck!
WHEN: February 13-23
WHERE: 410 S. Windomere Avenute, Dallas
WEB: fairassembly.com
