In her program notes for Twelfth Night at Clayton Community Theatre, director Heather Sartin expresses boundless love for Shakespeare. Her enthusiasm is infectious, not only in her essay, but also in the production. On opening night, the audience laughed throughout the play and cheered wildly at the end.

Sartin’s essay explains why her cast is all female. This choice reflects her personal desire to play every part in Shakespeare herself. Rob Corbett’s handsome, traditional costumes make each character’s gender clear, so the only uncertainty about gender is the confusion built into the play.

Like four other Shakespeare works, Twelfth Night has a female character who pretends to be a boy. This device was an easy one for Shakespeare to employ because boy actors played all the women on the Elizabethan stage.

The gender-changing character in Twelfth Night is Viola, who dons men’s clothing for her own protection after being shipwrecked in a foreign country. In the guise of a boy named Cesario, she enters the service of Duke Orsino, who is pining away for Countess Olivia. She has no interest in him because she is in mourning for her brother.

When the Duke sends Cesario to read a love note to Olivia, the countess falls in love with the boy, who is really a girl. Viola has fallen in love with Orsino but cannot do anything about it because Orsino thinks she is a boy.

Even more bewilderment ensues when Viola’s twin brother, Sebastian, appears on the scene. He and Viola were the traveling together when the shipwreck separated them.

The Clayton cast members perform at a consistently high level under Sartin’s direction, speaking their line with clarity, understanding, and perceptive interpretations.

Claire Coffey is an enchanting Viola who creates a striking sense of intimacy with the audience when she is thinking out loud. As Olivia, Katie Puglisi makes a convincing transition from love’s denier to love’s captive. Deborah Roby’s Orsino embodies the folly of hopeless love.

Malvolio, Olivia’s steward, is a killjoy who makes enemies when he cracks down on carousing. The stymied carousers then appeal to his dreams of grandeur to dupe him into making a fool of himself. Erin Struckhoff has the measure of Malvolio’s dour punctiliousness as well as his comic excesses, which entertain in a manner that is still recognizably Malvolio’s.

Malvolio’s foes are a fun-loving crew. The mischievous clown, Feste, appears to be having the time of his life in Bryn Sentnor’s portrayal. Anne Vega leaves no doubt about the importance of drinking to Toby Belch. Carolyn Bergdolt is appropriately mellow as Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Therese Melnykov’s Maria has the gumption required to plot out Malvolio’s comeuppance, and Jan Meyer’s Fabian is fully invested in carrying out the plot.

Emilee Murphree endows Sebastian with the charm that makes him such a favorite of his rescuer, Antonio. Murphree ratchet up Sebastian’s resemblance to Cesario by carrying herself in a similar manner. Kristin Meyer’s Antonio is a stouthearted fellow. The accomplished fight choreography is by Michael Monsey.

Rounding out the cast are Lauren Rubin as a sea captain, Nachalah “Catie” Duclerne as Valentine, Lucy Sappington an Officer, and Laurie Lynn Shelton as both a priest and a sailor.

Sartin’s direction takes advantage of the wide, attractive set of her own design. The set decoration is by Rob Corbett; the props, by Laurie Lynn Shelton. The action is helpfully illuminated by Nathan Schroeder’s lighting, which required an 11-member light hang crew.

The musicians of the Revelers Guild put on an engaging concert before the play and remain onstage to provide an attractive “musical landscape,” which was created by Sartin and the guild. The score includes “specific melodies that call each character onto the stage and create a familiarity for the audience,” as Sartin explains in the program.

The guild’s members are Carolyn Bergdolt (voice), Nachalah “Catie” Duclerne (voice), Hannah Martin (flute), Rosemary Paeltz (bodhrán/clarinet), Lucy Sappington (voice), Bryn Sentnor (voice), Laurie Shelton (voice), Kellann Struckhoff (trumpet), and Megan Page Wiegert (guitar).

Twelfth Night continues through July 21 at the Washington University South Campus Theatre, 6501 Clayton Road.

—Gerry Kowarsky

Photo by John Lamb
From the left, Carolyn Bergdolt as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Anne Vega as Sir Toby Belch, Jan Meyer as Fabian, and Erin Struckhoff as Malvolio in Twelfth Night.