When Naked Shakes’ new production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night returns to UCSB’s beautiful Commencement Green in October, get there early and fight the impulse to plunk down your lawn chair or spread out your picnic blanket too close to the stage.
This sprawling, effervescent show fills the large open space leading to the lagoon with energy and excitement. Thanks to an imaginative production design, impeccable vocal performances, and the use of handheld microphones, no matter where you are, you will hear Shakespeare’s dialogue crisp and clear. What a more distant vantage point for this show allows is something that could change your experience of theater forever: the realization that the old boxes we have relied on for so long — be they traditional indoor theater spaces or the stacked tiles of a Zoom screen — can explode, leaving the plays they purport to contain miraculously vital and intact.
The young cast mixes experienced BFA students with non-majors, some of whom are appearing in their first play, in a way that’s bold and persuasive. Double casting of the key roles Viola (Lana Spring, first half; Taylor Kirk, second half) and Olivia (Kirsten Høj, first half; Hailey Turner, second half) not only gives more students great opportunities to perform but it also deepens the play’s thematic exploration of doubling and shifting identity. This principle extends even further in the case of Feste, the fool, a role that is portrayed by a chorus of three in this production — Rae Farnum, Andalyn Honselaar, and Caroline Ware. This choice enables director Irwin Appel, who composed the show’s original songs, to bring the iconic sound of voices harmonizing with an acoustic guitar (played by Brandon Statner, who also sings) into the mix.