Twelfth Night
By Duncan Pflaster
Publication: Broadway World

In the time that Shakespeare was writing his plays, of course, only males were allowed onstage. This made it very effective when his female characters would dress as men- they were very convincing. The Queen’s Company, an all-female acting troupe, turns the trope on its head- similarly, when his plays are stylized so that all the men on stage are women dressed as men, it's a lot simpler for a gal to "pass" as a guy. With costume and facial hair to transform them into (often quite handsome) men, the fine actresses of The Queen’s Company are more than ready to take on Twelfth Night.

The direction by Rebecca Patterson is slick and funny, full of hilarious moments. I am usually against employing "shtick" in Shakespearean productions- too often in bad productions it can overwhelm the comedy that's actually in the script, but here a deft and clever touch from the director and the performers augments the text with amusing and truthful sight gags and slapstick. Most tellingly, Feste (a wonderful Natalie Lebert), ostensibly the "clown" of the piece, eschews over-the-top fooling in place of a simple dry wit, and allows the more natural fools of Illyria to be the jokes.

Several MTV-inspired lip-synched interludes inform the piece (providing a prologue and a hilarious alternate ending), references to the movie Titanic are amusing, and some more modern takes on the classic characters are very entertaining.

The entire multi-racial and barefoot cast is charming and superlative, with nary a weak link, but especial note should go to the uproariously hilarious Malvolio of Aysan Celik, the aforementioned Lebert, and the breathlessly vital Carey Urban as Olivia.