Twelfth Night @ Upright Theatre Co.
—Hannah Kneen
Walking into Upright Theatre Co. for a show is a pleasant surprise. Instead of being placed in conventional rows of chairs, audience members are grouped at small tables in front of the stage, and take in the show with the benefit of concessions. The seating arrangement encourages intermission conversation, and I found it a particularly pleasant way to spend an evening at the theater, watching a production of Shakespeare’s famous comedy Twelfth Night.
If you don’t know Twelfth Night, allow me to give you a quick rundown of the story. It centers around a young woman named Viola (played by the charming Gwen Mowdy) who, upon being shipwrecked and losing her brother, decides to disguise herself as a young man and serve a lovesick Duke by the name of Orsino (John Marshall). Viola, under the name of Cesario, quickly falls in love with the Duke, who has been pining away for the Countess Olivia (Grace Grooms). She, in turn, has decided to decline any romantic overtures for seven years in mourning for her recently deceased brother.
When Viola, as Cesario, is sent by the Duke to carry his suit to Olivia, she finds herself the unwilling recipient of Olivia’s sudden affection. In this production, I particularly enjoyed the moment when Viola, as Cesario, comes to speak with Olivia for the first time and is met with not one veiled lady but four (and a gentleman–yes, Sir Toby stepped up, too), each ready to rebuff her message. Clever as she is, Viola gets past all opposition and is allowed to relay her master’s feelings to Olivia, accidentally wooing her in the process. It’s a love triangle with a healthy twist of cross-dressing to keep things interesting: Viola loves Orsino, Orsino loves Olivia, Olivia loves Viola (as Cesario). The lovestruck Viola is admittedly adorable in her affections for Orsino and it is hard not to root for her. Gwen Mowdy’s Viola is expressive to the point that she seems to let the audience into her head to enjoy the humor of the situations she gets stuck in.
Meanwhile, the other folk on the fringes of this mess are making messes of their own: Sir Toby (played by Sarah “Wryn” Stoll); Sir T’s drinking friend and walking-money-purse Sir Andrew (Kyle Morris); and Olivia’s gentlewoman Maria (Darolyn Nieves) conspire to take the high strung Malvolia (Riley Turner) down a peg. Turner’s performance of Malvolia was well done, and as a result the mockery the character endured balanced on that knife-edge of funny and perturbing that’s needed for the subplot involving Malvolio/Malvolia (recently the originally male character has been played as a woman more often–as in this production) to be suitably compelling. The lively performances of Sirs Toby and Andrew as well as Maria and Fabia (Whitney Morris) let us enjoy their plots as well as their pain. As if things weren’t convoluted enough, Viola’s lost brother Sebastian (Hayden Casey) reenters the scene, and people begin to confuse him with his disguised sister Viola. As this is a comedy, the truth will out and love will prevail, of course, but the fun is in seeing how the characters get there.
Director Jericho Thomas gives us a fun show, even with difficult material and limited space and resources. The set, designed by Wendy Searcy-Woode, is as flexible and simple as any Shakespeare play needs, painted like sea and sky with movable pillars for scene changes (though be careful where you sit if you want a good view). The sound design by Natalie Burkhart matched it well, setting the tone for the show with the sound of surf and seabirds. The whole production comes together nicely, and is definitely a good way to spend an evening with your friends or family.
WHEN: May 26-June 17, 2023
WHERE: Upright Theatre Co., 250l N. Main Street, Euless TX
WEB: uprighttheatre.org
