Ask the modern layman about Shakespeare and you’re bound to hear something about stuffy soliloquies, lofty language and boring spiels about honor. Even I, an English major who is taking a class on Shakespeare, went into the KU Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night thinking that my only weapon against dozing off would be the bottle of green tea I smuggled in with me.
Oh, how wrong I was!
Twelfth Night is a two-hour riot fueled by sexual innuendos, mistaken identities and gender role reversals. And to enhance the hilarity, the KU Theatre folks have set Shakespeare’s later play in prohibition-era New Orleans, complete with prostitutes and righteous preachers. It’s Shakespeare with a southern accent, Elizabethan courtliness with swamp-soaked feet.
A bunch of colorful and well cast characters are after the wealth or love of sassy sugar-mama Lady Olivia (DeAndrea Beatrice Herron). There’s Viola (Jordan White), who is disguised as a man to avoid enemies and is trying to play matchmaker for her lady, Orsino (Amy Virginia Buchanon; casting Orsino as a woman diverges from the Shakespeare version and adds a homoerotic twist). Viola competes with the effeminate southern gentleman Sir Andrew (Spencer Holdren), who has been colluding with Sir Toby, a drunkard who wants his share of the pie. Then there’s Malvolio (Garrett Kelly), the servant who is duped into believing that his lady, Olivia, has fallen for him.
The rule to the chaos is that those who want love have a hell of a time finding it, and those not looking have it plop into their unassuming lap. But of course, as in any traditional comedy, things have a way of working out in the end.
The play runs through this weekend at the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall. A student ticket costs $10.
FOUR OUT OF FIVE STARS
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