Twelfth Night

Classic fun for Delta College's 'Twelfth Night' production

Dianne Runion
Special to The Record
Published Tuesday, Oct 18, 2005

In San Joaquin Delta College's production of Shakespeare's 1601 comedy "Twelfth Night," laughter bubbles, energy bounds and lovers ultimately unite in marriage.

Rarely is classic Elizabethan theater this much fun.

"Twelfth Night" succeeds largely thanks to the exotic locale, fast pacing, director Harvey Jordan's portrayal of the brawling Sir Toby Belch and set designer John White's proud and melancholy Malvolio.

The Elizabethans didn't even know about Polynesia, but they loved strange settings in general. This 19th-century placement works well for its music, flowers, color, Robert Sereno's sound design, White's multilevel set and the ready-made rationale for multiethnic student casting.

The complex plot washes up twins and shipwreck survivors Viola and Sebastian -- skilled actors Catherine R.J. Frye and Parker Cushing -- on different parts of an island. While not related, makeup, blond good looks and Beverly Norcross' costume design create the illusion of a strong resemblance between the actors.

Brian Peccia plays the handsome duke, nearly sick with love for Hawaiian noblewoman Olivia -- beautiful Chalia La Tour. He sends Viola as his page and envoy to woo her, but she falls in love with the disguised youth -- a girl in love with her boss, the duke.

John White's Malvolio is easily the most interesting character in the play. Wearing a morning coat and pinstripe trousers and carrying a black umbrella, he's as grave as a Victorian undertaker. Malvolio's pomposity makes Olivia's drunken relative Sir Toby, his richer sot of a sidekick Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Olivia's gentlewoman Maria hatch a plot to persuade the ambitious steward that his mistress Olivia is secretly in love with him.

Chris Hayhurst plays the remarkably agile Aguecheek, while the warmly natural Ciera Coyan is the witty Maria. In what Malvolio perceives as secret signals, he appears smiling foolishly in grass skirt, red long johns and a costume so wild Sir Toby and company dance around him in a Polynesian exorcism dance, shaking feathers and a shrunken head on a stick.

That and sword fights that progress from feint to faint saw opening night's high school students in the audience shouting, rooting for the romantic leads and sighing in sympathy for Malvolio's strangely moving ultimate comedown.

Joanna Bernazzani plays the fool. Her lovely mezzo voice opens and closes a show rich in song. One of the funniest is Sir Toby and company's fast rendition of the "Twelve Days of Christmas," the twelfth-night revels from which the play takes its name.

While great fun, Delta's "Twelfth Night" loses some of Shakespeare's lines. Diction, projection and low-level lighting on night scenes were also problematic without spoiling a young, well-acted, deliciously physical production crammed with eye and ear candy.