Review: The Stratford Festival's TWELFTH NIGHT Boasts a Multitude of Fantastic Performances

The Stratford Festival’s 72nd season opened last night with a delightful production of William Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT. Last performed on the Festival Theatre stage in 2017, it was high time that this comedy of mistaken identity, foolish pranks, and the pursuit of love be brought back for Stratford audiences. This production also marks the Stratford Festival Directorial Debut for beloved performer Seana McKenna.

For those who are unfamiliar – TWELFTH NIGHT is a beloved comedy that aptly employs all of Shakespeare’s classic tropes and motifs – from love triangles, to cross-dressing, to mistaken identity, to side plots of trickery, to the effective use of music.

Shipwrecked twins Viola and Sebastian (Jessica B. Hill and Austin Eckert) each believe the other dead and set off on separate journeys. Viola disguises herself as a young man named Cesario and gets employed as a servant for a Duke named Orsinio (André Sills). Cesario is tasked with convincing Olivia (Vanessa Sears) to marry Orsinio, however Olivia is far more interested in ‘Cesario’ while Viola secretly has interest in her employer. Meanwhile, a myriad of other characters are engaged in their own hijinks and pursuits of love that have both direct and indirect implications with the main love story.

This production is set in 1967 - a time associated with 'free love' and a push for social change. It was also associated with long hair, afros, folk music, and the beginngs of disco - all of which is featured in this production. 

Christina Poddubiak has chosen for a sparce set design. As the play begins, the stage is bare and the only piece of set decoration is a mobile hanging above. It is in her costumes that the 1967 setting of this play becomes apparent. On more than one occasion on opening night, there was a collective knowing chuckle from the  audience as a character made an entrance dressed in specific late 60's early '70's attire. From Rylan Wilkie's Sir Andrew Aguecheek in a frilly pink top and white suit jacket, to the reveal of Deborah Hay's Feste as a Joni Mitchell lookalike.

Speaking of Deborah Hay as Feste, this character is typically male and played by a man. In fact, back in 2011, the character was portrayed by Hay's husband Ben Carlson on this very stage. The choice to make Feste a woman adds to the theme of gender fluidity and gender roles in this play. It also gives Hay the opportunity to have what appears to be a great deal of fun! Her Feste is quirky and charismatic, and when she sings (music composed by Paul Shilton), you will listen.

There are in fact a multitude of wonderful performances in this production. Jessica B. Hill shines as Viola. Not only does she immediately win over the audience with her physical comedy, but she also plays off of both Sills and Sears splendidly – having excellent chemistry with both. The comedy of the characters’ situation is ever present in her performance, but so are the stakes of her current situation. Funny moments are often interspersed with quieter, more introspective ones – like when Viola becomes emotional at Feste’s song; as well as loud, passionate declarations as Viola while in disguise is bursting at the seams at her predicament.

Vanessa Sears offers delightful comedic timing as her Olivia transitions from a grief-stricken daughter and sister who refuses to ever love again, to a love-sick girl who is infatuated with Viola disguised as Cesario.

Laura Condlln has us both laughing at and aching for her Malvolio - Olivia's servant who is tricked into believing that Olivia is in love with her. As funny as this performance is, the decision to make this character a queer woman arguably makes her humiliation and betrayed sense of hope even more devastating than what we have seen when Malvolio is portrayed as a straight man. Typically, Malvolio’s desire to be with Olivia has more to do with ambition and desire for social mobility than it does love and desire. In this production, this feels a little more complicated. We see a ‘pure’ and repressed Malvolio literally let her hair down and let herself hope for a love between herself and Olivia – in what is perhaps the first time she has ever allowed herself to proclaim her love in this way. This makes the unresolved ending to this character's story feel absolutely gutting.

There is a moment where Malvolio attempts to smile (something that proves very challenging to her) and in what is perhaps the most minute and effective example of physical comedy that this writer has ever witnessed, Condlln manages a subtle facial twitch that is executed so well, that it can somehow be seen by every single audience member and elicits a huge laugh.

The exploration of gender and gender roles is a key theme in this play, and in a time when fluidity of gender and sexuality is becoming better understood but also sometimes intentionally misunderstood in politics and society, this production seems to very much celebrate the queer undertones that exist due to mistaken identities, while also allowing for the existance of an explicitly queer character in Malvolio. The devotion of the character Antonio to Sebastian is also considered by most Shakespearean scholars to be a romantic devotion - meaning that it appears to have been important from the start that this comedy not simply end with all relationships being heteronormative. Looking at it through today's lens (or even the "love-in" lens of 1967), Viola's seemingly unnecessary and immediate desire to dress as a man also offers a queer coded protagonist for theatregoers who look to see themselves on stage. This is not to say that there is an emphasis on queer culture in this production, it just simply exists. Perhaps that's why the alternate title is "What You Will."

TWELFTH NIGHT continues in Repertory at the Festival Theatre until October 26th.

PHOTO CREDIT: DAVID HOU

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