Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

"Twelfth Night , or What You Will" is the title William Shakespeare selected for his play about Viola and her twin brother Sebastian being shipwrecked in Illyria. The amusement was to be performed at a celebration taking place on the Feast of the Epiphany (twelve days after Christmas) in 1601. It is hard to imagine that he could have envisioned his play being performed in a theater in a bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Fridays in 2006, and having been give an additional caption—The Drinking Game.

   The Legitimate Theater Company has conspired to present the classic comedy--almost as the Bard wrote it--while encouraging members of the audience to partake in a festive imbibing game. When you receive your program upon entering The Slipper Room, you also receive a slip of paper assigning you to one of three teams. The teams are then instructed in the cues (related to the performance) at which they are encouraged to drink. During the course of the evening I attended, the degree of participation on the part of audience members seemed to vary because, really, "the play is the thing."

From Duke Orsino's opening line ("If music be the food of love, play on.") and the verse that follows, it becomes apparent that unrequited love will be the theme of the evening's entertainment, until the "happy ending." Events become gender-bendingly ironic as the Duke has Cesario (really Viola in drag) express his love to Lady Olivia, while Olivia discovers a lust for Cesario (Viola) and Viola (Cesario) gets stuck on Orsino. Other complications ensue as a result of the loutish-behaving and often amusing Maria, Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Fabian. The comic highlights (among many comic and bawdy happenings) belong to Olivia's haughty steward, Malvolio, in revealing his misguided passions (at one point ridiculously attired in "cross-gartered, yellow stocking") for his Lady. Feste, the clown, also contributes to the philosophical bent and the jovial spirit of the play.

Each member of the company is energetic, spirited and hard-working. The sense and rhythm of Shakespeare's language was certainly not abused (although delivered a bit too loudly on a few occasions), and every so often the beauty of the Bard's poetry was allowed to soar. Particularly impressive was when noise from the bar crowd after intermission (which also had a musical interlude) became a bit bothersome, the actors "turned it up a notch" and were able to draw their audience deeper in to the on-stage machinations.

"Twelfth Night: The Drinking Game" probably is not for Shakespeare purists--as a number of creative liberties are taken, and it might not evoke the play's inherent pathos for the, at-times, gender-crossed lovers; however, one may surely enjoy its assorted pleasures and a sip or two in this "What You Will" production.