Vanessa Greenway ( left ) and Tiffany Joy Ross in Twelfth Night. Photo by Johnny Knight. Playwright: Julia Jordan. At: Circle Theatre, 7300 W. Madison,. Forest Park. Phone: 708-771-0700; $24. Runs through: Feb. 24. ______________
Hard to believe that City Lit Theater, a company dedicated to transforming literature into live theater, has never tackled a play by William Shakespeare. True, there are other companies already dedicated to the Bard, but City Lit shows that it can bend its mission to allow Shakespeare to shine in its intimate space.
City Lit certainly makes up for lost time with a thoroughly enjoyable take on the comedy Twelfth Night. Director Jay Paul Skelton has gathered a strong cast that smartly sells the comedy while remaining true to the characters who get caught up in a gender-bending game of mixed-up attractions.
Skelton updates the play to what looks like the buttoned-up Edwardian age in the early 1900s ( the stylish black period costumes are by Branimira Ivanova ) . That era's formalized rigidity gets loosened up a plenty as a cross-dresser tests the passions of the nobility and herself, while drunkards turn the tables on a haughty servant. Add to the mix a late appearance of a long-lost twin to cause even more comic confusion.
Tiffany Joy Ross' clever shipwrecked Viola heads up the great comic cast, making quite a convincing boyish male servant to Duke Orsino ( an emphatic Jeremy Cudd ) , who is suffering from unrequited love for the mourning noblewoman Olivia ( a playfully dignified Vanessa Greenway ) .
Olivia's snobbish manservant Malvolio ( a comically perfect Robert McLean ) gets his comeuppance at the scheming hands of fellow servant Maria ( a feisty Melanie Esplin ) who is in cahoots with roving jester Feste ( a musically multi-talented Julian Martinez ) and Sir Toby Belch ( a disheveled Frank Nall ) , who is having the time of his life living off the wealth of the naïve and not-so-bright knight of Sir Andrew Aguecheek ( a genuinely funny and underplayed performance by Nick Lake ) .
Even the smaller roles are expertly filled. Matt Rudy, as the late-arriving zany schemer Fabian, is a delight, while Joe McCauley's butch take on the dedicated mercenary sailor Antonio hints of a masculine gay attraction to the twin Sebastian ( a circumspect James Dolan ) . Paige Smith and Conor Woods also double well in their minor roles of officers and clergy.
True, Marcus Stephens' set of a of concealing white curtain wall and surrealist oversize picture frames falling to earth doesn't offer much glamour when compared to the costumes, but it provides plenty of open space for all of the silly shenanigans to play out. Jared Moore's colorful lighting against the back curtains helps set the shifting moods, though they do unnecessarily reveal the silhouettes of entering and exiting characters at times.
City Lit shows it has what it takes to do Shakespearean comedy very well with its first outing. If it wants to, City Lit is certainly welcome to offer us more.