I will tell you a secret. <whisper>I did not want to see this show</whisper>. Life's crazy right now: writing deadlines, two wee kids, a this-old-house-style renovation project. The last production I saw of Twelfth Night was a fool's show. Lotsa gags. Lotsa gas. Lotsa nothin'. Fortunately, the same cannot be said of Jerrold Scott's interpretation that is currently running at The Distracted Globe. It's as thoughtful as it is beautiful--without skimping on the laughs.

First comes laughter. Anne Kelly Tromsness (Maria) and Jayce Tromsness (Sir Toby Belch) offer up richly textured clowns, lovely foils to Rick Connor's hilariously affected Sir Andrew Aguecheek. I don't know when I've laughed so much at a single character as I did last night at Aguecheek. This unlikely trio connives to unseat Countess Olivia's chief steward Malvolio (another clown, a peacocky Puritan, played with fire by Matt Reece).

Then comes the beauty. Elizabeth Gray has designed exquisite Steampunk attire for courtesans and clowns alike. While I was skeptical of this arrangement at first, it does work out quite nicely. In a style that exposes the "inner workings" of people, how apropos that Duke Orsino wears all his gears, cogs, pistons on his shirtsleeve...right where he keeps his feelings. Andy Croston turns in a grand performance as this Duke in love with being in love. His melancholy humors are believable and infectious (a hard sell for the modern audience, but he scores), and when he's opposite his servant Cesario (Heidi Fortune, bravo)--my heart starts racing. Their chemistry is amazing...even if Orsino can't see that Cesario is a woman.

That's the other thing about steampunk: it's obsessed with vision. Virtually everyone in the show (and in steampunk) wears high-powered, ultra perceptive goggles--which sit, unused, atop their hats. Orsino and Olivia can't see that they're in love with the wrong people. Olivia (Miranda Notus) is so blind she could make you scream. Feste (Phyllis Jackson) sees everything and does nothing--though her jail cell scene with Malvolio is quite moving.

And here's where the thought bit comes in. Sure, this may have been written four hundred years ago, but we humans haven't changed a bit. How easily we laugh our way to cruelty. (I mean, who DOESN'T want to humiliate their own personal Malvolio in those yellow stockings....and then lock him in a jail cell until he whimpers? Guilty as charged.) How often we put on a show of loving, when all we really love is pitter-patter. How quickly we disguise our true selves, lying about our essence, especially when love is right under our noses. Ouch. There are some dark thoughts in this play, and they aren't all packed up in a little crate at the end. But fortunately for all those Lords and Ladies (and fortunately for me!) there's a little bit of hope and a lot a bit of love.

--
Three more performances left! Get your tickets

William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," directed by Jerrold Scott
Presented by The Distracted Globe at Warehouse Theatre, 37 Augusta St., Greenville (864) 235-6948. Through August 4. Tickets $10.