Episode 2: Twelfth Night

All The World’s A Stage And this week, we’re in London, England at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Twelfth Night, arguably The Bard of Avon’s finest comedy, and possibly the greatest rom-com ever written, didn’t premiere at the original Globe, like many of his other plays; but it was Mark Rylance’s production 23 years ago, staged in period costume and practice, with men performing the female roles, that helped elevate current Globe from mere tourist attraction to legitimate theatrical destination.

This summer, “Twelfth Night” was directed by Robin Belfield in a staging set in a contemporary Caribbean carnival. Just as Rylance swapped gender roles, here Sir Toby becomes Lady Belch, riotously performed by actress Jocelyn Jee Esien.

And just as Rylance stole the show in his version, here the standout is Jos Vantyler as Feste. His dashing looks combined with a fluent command of the Elizabethan text made his flirty fool a delight, making the play come more vividly alive whenever he was on stage.

This summer also featured another high-profile “Twelfth Night,” here in Manhattan’s Central Park. Two summers ago, Director Saheem Ali mounted a “Merry Wives of Windsor” set in the African immigrant streets of Harlem. This time, his setting is more abstract, consisting of only the play’s subtitle, “What You Will,” spelled out in huge Robert Indiana-style block letters along the back of the stage. This use of text as scenery was also used in the famous letter scene, where rather than hiding behind a hedge or tree, Sir Toby, Andrew and Maria hid behind four green letters that they each held as props.

Despite this physical embodiment of Shakespeare’s words, this blingy new Public Theater production was far more reliant on gimmicks, such as Toby and Andrew snorting lines in a heart shaped hot tub or Feste shocking Malvolio with real electric sparks, for laughs rather than simply artfully elocuting the Bard’s language. (These set pieces, which appeared via modern stage lifts, showcased the true setting of the play which was the newly $80 million renovation of the Delacorte Theater).

As is often the case at Shakespeare in the Park, where rehearsals and runs are counted in weeks rather than months, much of the power of the performance comes from casting and music. Here the role of Feste was performed by singer Moses Sumney. In the acting scenes, his Fool seemed like an outsider to the play’s action, but in his songs, his riffs on the numbers in “Twelfth Night” and bits taken from other Shakespeare plays were both soaring and transportive. Then there was the luxury casting of Sandra Oh as Olivia, Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Andrew, Peter Dinklidge as Malvolio, Khris Davis as Orsino and John Ellison Conlee as Toby.

But what really made this production special was the casting of Lupita Nyong’o and her brother Junior Nyong’o as Viola and Sebastian. The siblings look so alike, the gender swapping, so integral to “Twelfth Night,” was unprecedented. When Viola gasps “most wonderful,” it really is. Director Ali also presents both characters as African immigrants who washed ashore on Illyria, so when the two are reunited, they speak the lines about their family’s history in Swahili. It’s a bravura touch, rooted in the 400-year-old play’s history, that proves how potent its scenario and soliquoies remain today. Tune in next week for another episode of