Twelfth Night (Free Shakespeare in the Park)

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The newly refurbished Delacorte Theater in Central Park has reopened after almost two years with Saheem Ali’s starry revival of Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night for Free Shakespeare in the Park. On the plus side, Ali’s version is entertaining and easy to follow; on the reverse side, as he has no evident interpretation or concept, the production is not one of the more memorable ones. It remains, however, an extremely sunny romantic farce of shipwrecked siblings, mistaken identity, and cross-dressing with a happy ending.

The starry cast which includes stage, screen and television stars such as Academy Award-winner Lupita Nyong’o, Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe-winner Sandra Oh, four- time Primetime Emmy Award winner Peter Dinklage, Tony Award-winner Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Tony Award nominee Daphne Rubin-Vega, Tony Award-nominee John Ellison Conlee and Theatre World Award winner Khris Davis seems to be enjoying themselves enormously inviting us to join in the fun. However, as Ali has allowed them to behave as though they are all in different plays, the entire evening does not hang together. However, one casting decision works beautifully: the two twins are played by siblings Lupita Nyong’o and her brother Junior Nyong’o making his New York debut. They look enough alike to make the mistaken identity plot make sense for a change.

The one of the most notable elements when the play begins is the lack of scenery with the stage backed by a huge one-story sign which says “WHAT YOU WILL” in Maruti Evans’ minimal set design (which includes sets pieces arriving and disappearing through a trap door in the middle of the stage.) Not only is this signage never referred to, most of the audience will be unaware that this is Shakespeare’s subtitle (it does not even appear on the title page of the program which might explain its usage.) However, Oana Botez’s luscious contemporary costume design, most elegant for the women, and the gorgeous runway parade for the entire cast at the curtain calls tend to make up for it.

When the play begins those who know the original will recognize that Ali has edited the text: the first two scenes have been flipped which makes perfect sense letting us know that Viola, the heroine, has been shipwrecked off the coast of Illyria, and that she has lost her twin brother Sebastian. (She decides to dress in male clothing in order to see the lay of the land as a single woman in a foreign country.) Unfortunately some of the other edits, including the most famous scene in the play in which the unloved puritan Malvolio reads out loud the forged letter he has received with the famous lines “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em,” are mistakes. Much of the edited material makes the play dark so the intent may have been to soften the play’s somber side, though it does eliminate much of the characters’ best material.

For those who do not know the play, it deals with all kinds of love: romantic, unrequited, love at first sight, and same sex. After arriving in Illyria, Viola dresses as a man, taking the name Cesario and gets a position with Duke Orsino who is strangely attracted to the young man who never seems to have shaved. Orsino is love with the Countess Olivia, who in mourning for both her father and her brother has refused his offers of love, but he decides to send the personable Cesario as his emissary anyway.

Although “Cesario” shows no interest in Olivia, she immediately is smitten with him and asks him to come again tomorrow. However, her interest doesn’t sit well with her dissolute uncle, Sir Toby Belch, who lives with her as he wants her to marry his dim-witted but rich drinking companion Sir Andrew Aguecheek. He and his sidekick Maria, Olivia’s lady-in-waiting first get Sir Andrew to challenge Cesario to a duel and then try to diminish the power of Olivia’s steward Malvolio, who also had designs on her, by making a fool of him.

Ironically, just as Cesario finds himself in a duel he can’t win, brother Sebastian is delivered to Illyria, taken for his twin and wins the fight. But Olivia also takes Sebastian for Cesario and convinces him to marry her immediately. When Sebastian’s traveling companion Antonio is arrested as a pirate, Viola and Sebastian are brought together before the Duke’s court and Olivia and Orsino both work out their romantic entanglements.

Ali has some interesting visual ideas but usually doesn’t carry them through. Orsino is a gym rat always working out (weights, fencing, etc.). However, only one member of his court in each of his scenes appears to join him when it would have been funnier and more consistent if he had his entire court workout with him. One of Sir Toby and Sir Andrew’s revels is in a hot tub but nothing much is done with this except that Sir Toby snorts coke off the side of tub. Sir Andrew and Cesario’s duel is done in a boxing ring which is colorful in orange and white but is not prepared for. However, Viola and the Captain’s arrival in a pontoon life raft works well as it sets up the shipwreck theme.

The cast is generally excellent though all use their own inimitable styles. As the twins, both Nyong’os are quite charming and it is a clever device to have them speak Swahili at various times to remind us that they are shipwrecked from some other country. Oh is very good at Olivia’s sophistry, though Ali has avoided the concept that she is in mourning when we meet her and she has to melt in her encounters with Cesario and later Sebastian. With his magnificent manly physique, Davis draws upon his other roles as an athlete (football player in Death of a Salesman, boxer in The Royale) but at times sounds like a dude from Brooklyn and at others a good ole boy from the South.

Rubin-Vega is more low-key than usual as the mischief loving Maria which is perfectly suited to Shakespeare. Ferguson’s attempt at an over-the-top Sir Andrew doesn’t quite get all the laughs he deserves, while Conlee is bigger than life as the drunken Sir Toby. Dinklage is fine as the supercilious and snobbish Malvolio but his missing lines deflate his part considerably. As the singer and jester Feste, singer-songwriter Moses Sumney who gets to sing many new songs by Michael Thurber to words by Shakespeare is fine as both the entertainer and as master of ceremonies as he opens the play with a song. The wonderful crystal clear sound by Kai Harada and Palmer Hefferan may also be due to the new and improved theater design.

Saheem Ali who is best known for new work like Fat Ham, Goddess, Good Bones, Nollywood Dreams, The Rolling Stone, Passage and Sugar in Our Wounds has made a brightly enjoyable entertainment out of Shakespeare’s usually dark comedy Twelfth Night. In this form it will certainly be more accessible to those who have not seen it before. Those who know it may miss the edited parts or the missed opportunities, but for a cast that is mainly not versed in Shakespeare this may have been the best way to go.

Twelfth Night (through September 14, 2025)

Free Shakespeare in the Park

The Public Theater at the Delacorte Theater, enter at 81st Street and Central Park West or 79th Street and Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan

Five ways to get free tickets: distributed at Noon at the Delacorte Box Office to those on prior line, Downtown Distribution Lottery at The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street at Astor Place, by Mobile Ticket Lottery powered by TodayTix at http://www.publictheater.org, in person distribution at locations throughout the five boroughs on day of select performances, or In-Person Standby Line in Central Park after six PM.

Running time: two hours and five minutes without an intermission