This review originally appeared in the MetroWest Daily News on Thursday, March 27, 2003.

Hovey Players stage lively Shakespearean romp

By David Brooks Andrews

WALTHAM -- After 65 years of staging community theater productions in Waltham, the Hovey Players have finally taken on the greatest playwright of all time, William Shakespeare, offering a rousing production of "Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will."

They clearly want to convince their audiences that Shakespeare isn't dry and stuffy but a whole lot of fun, and they couldn't have chosen a better play to make their point.

It is a light, romantic comedy full of playfulness, mistaken identities, heartsick characters in love with the wrong people, and low comic characters playing tricks on each other. There's nothing profound about "Twelfth Night," nothing to make you think deeply or search your soul. It's just a delightful romp, which is something a lot of us could use about now. Under the direction of John MacKenzie, the Hovey cast approaches the story with exuberant playfulness, as they should.

When the play opens, Viola finds herself stranded on the coast of the mythical Illyria, having survived a shipwreck that she fears has taken her twin brother's life. She assumes the male appearance and name of Cesario, for her own protection. There's a lovely, heartfelt scene between Michelle Aguillon as Viola and Jason Katz as the Captain as they discuss their fate.

Cesario becomes a page to Duke Orsino, who uses him to woo the uninterested Olivia, who falls in love with Cesario thinking that he's a man. Meanwhile, Viola, in her male disguise, has secretly fallen in love with the Duke. Isn't this the tangled way love often works?

It's like a fairy tale, in which half the fun lies in willingly suspending our disbelief and going along with the deliciously improbable story. We accept the fact that everyone thinks Viola is a man, just as we accept that Viola and Sebastian are identical twins, even though Aguillon as Viola and Gordon Ellis as Sebastian don't look alike. Their identical Elizabethan costumes are enough to make us believers.

Shakespeare typically inserts low comic characters in many of his plays, but in "Twelfth Night" they get as much stage time as anyone else, as the play alternates between their shenanigans and the romantic pursuits of the melancholic lovers. One of the funniest scenes in the play involves Sir Toby Belch (the name tells all), Sir Andrew, Maria, and the jester Feste conspiring to convince the arrogant, self-important Malvolio that his employer, Olivia, is in love with him. They do it with a forged letter on the end of a string that persuades Malvolio to make a total fool of himself. It's a wonderful moment of stagecraft when the conspirators become invisible to Malvolio, played by Jason Myatt, by standing frozen as if they're garden statues or topiaries.
In another hilarious scene, the conspirators push Cesario and Sir Andrew towards a sword fight that neither of them is the least bit interested in. But when Sir Andrew and Toby take on Sebastian (confusing him for Cesario), they find themselves in a real fight. This moment of sudden surprise is delightful, as is the Priest's hasty retreat at the appearance of swords, in a play where Shakespeare often allows us to see the humor coming.

The low comics are a lively bunch with Geoffrey Pingree as Sir Toby being the boldest, broadest, and most drunk of them all, with Eric Houghton providing a fresh-scrubbed, naive Sir Andrew, with Kate Mahoney's Maria mothering the band, and with Richard Rininsland's jester Feste deftly slipping between situations. Myatt creates a wonderfully pompous Mavolio, whom we can't wait for the others to knock down a few notches.

"Twelfth Night" is a delicate balancing act between the rough comics, the melancholic lovers, and the sensible Viola, and one could argue that the comics could be reigned in a little bit in this production, without losing their spirited fun.

Christine Hamel gives one of the best performances of the evening as Olivia. She has such a clear sense of her character and the emotional heart of each moment that it makes her a pleasure to watch. It's no surprise that she'll be performing in the New Repertory Theatre's "Sweeney Todd."

Michelle Aguillon creates a very real Viola in this out-of-kilter world and a Cesario with believably boyish touches. The scene at the end of the play in which she finally discovers her brother Sebastian alive is deeply moving. Gordon Ellis gives Sebastian a nice world-weariness early in the play from nearly having drowned and assuming his sister to be dead. And Michael Sean Corbett is appealing as Duke Orsino, who's as much in love with love as the unattainable Olivia.

The first line of the play is the famous "If music be the food of love, play on." Director John MacKenzie has written haunting folk/country music for three of the five pieces, offering an emotional bridge from our contemporary lives into the Elizabethan world of the play. Richard Rininsland who plays Feste sings the numbers with a beautifully rich, mellow voice, and the quality of a contemporary folk singer, while accompanied by on-stage actors playing a guitar, cello, and clarinet and MacKenzie picking an off-stage guitar.

The playfulness of the production is picked up by Michele Boll's exquisite trompe l'oeil set. She's painted such a realistic courtyard and garden with brick walls (including several crumbling patches), lush foliage, and two statues that we're transported to Illyria.

After such a rousing "Twelfth Night," let's hope the Hovey Players don't wait another 65 years to stage their next Shakespeare.

" Twelfth Night" runs through March 29 at the Abbott Theater, 9 Spring Street, at Joel's Way, Waltham. Tickets cost $13 (for seniors $11) and can be reserved by calling 781-893-9171.

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