There's about a week to go for the Shakespeare Theatre's "Free-for-All" production of "Twelfth Night" at Sidney Harman Hall in Washington, DC. I imagine all the tickets are gone now (though it wouldn't hurt to check); if you have tickets for one of the remaining performances, you are in for a treat. Some critics have been hard on this production, a revival (with a few slight revisions) of a 2008 production of "Twelfth Night." Well, it might not be the most subtle performance of Shakespeare you've ever seen, but it is imaginative, visually stunning, excellently performed, and above all one hell of a lot of fun.
From the opening scene, we are drawn in to this production's special world. It shows Viola (Christina Pumariega) suspended above the stage, rolling in blue light that simulates the action of pounding waves, while below Countess Olivia (Sarah Agnew) walks the stage in darkness, weeping, swathed in mourning black. I cannot think of a better visual way of capturing the polarities of the play, and the production's continuing visual scheme--panels of red roses, multiplying as if by magic as the play's romantic entanglements increase and multiply--is simultaneously cheery and thrilling.
Of the many, many fine performers on stage in this production, I was particularly impressed by the clowns. Chuck Cooper is properly Falstaffian as Sir Toby Belch, Philip Goodwin admirably prissy as Malvolio, Tom Story delightfully pixilated as Sir Andrew Aguecheek. My favorite, however, is Floyd King, who brings a sad, sly, disabused worldliness to the role of Feste, a jester who'll do absolutely anything for you as long as you put a large enough sum in his outstretched hat. At the end, with all misunderstandings explained and all wrongs righted (well, OK, Malvolio's punishment seems a little harsh, but that's the problem with the play), King's Feste appropriates the Fool's Song ("He that hath a little tiny wit...") from "King Lear," putting an appropriately bittersweet cap on Shakespeare's little meditation on life's confusions.
If you're anywhere near Washington, DC, check for tickets--NOW. And remember, they're free!
