Twelfth Night by the Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy is a fun-filled festival with poignant undertones of love, madness, and folly. It is all thanks to director Jess Chayes’ antic approach, a cast and creative team brimming with talent, and our friend Will Shakespeare, also known as the Bard of Avon, the National Poet of England, and the Upstart Crow.
From the first moment, we are drawn into a world of wonder. It begins with a shipwreck. We hear the sound of water. Then, achingly beautiful music (sound designer is Matt Nielson). The cast enters, forms two lines, and begins swaying back and forth as if on a foundering vessel. Viola (Cameron Holder) comes forward, in a green and yellow summer dress. Her twin brother, Sebastian (Julian Cividanes), joins her, in a red tracksuit. They giggle and hit each other. Eventually, Sebastian disappears.
We learn that Viola has landed in Illyria, governed by the bachelor Duke Orsino (Robert Kittler). Viola assumes that Sebastian is dead, hoping against hope that it is not true. She disguises herself as her brother, perhaps in tribute, perhaps for safety’s sake. As Cesario, she becomes Orsino’s page.
Kittler’s Orsino makes an unusually bold entrance to the tune of Kim Wilde’s “I’ve Got So Much Love.” Despite his storied melancholy, he is always in motion, subject to lightning changes of mood, and frequently surrounded by flowers — a motif in this production. He begins with the unforgettable words:
ORSINO: If music be the food of love, play on
Give me excess of it, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken and so die.
He is passionately in love with the heiress Countess Olivia (Kendall Kent). And he engages the reluctant Cesario to speak for him. Olivia has recently lost her father and her brother. She has vowed to admit no suitors for the next seven years, relying on her puritanical steward, Malvolio (Anna Marzullo), to keep things quiet or at the very least, civil.
Fortunately for comedy, the rest of Olivia’s household are having none of it. Her maid Maria (Kimberly Colisch) is quick-witted and inventive. She is referred to as a “giant” in the original text, which is supposed to be a joke since the actor is usually very short. Here, Maria is tall, and her friendship with Olivia’s diminutive uncle, Toby Belch, adds to the fun. Belch (C.J. Craig), in a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, a hat, and sunglasses, challenges Malvolio with the famous line, “Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?”
Matilda Musser, as his companion Andrew Aguecheek, wears a magnificent Marie Antoinette-style wig (which did nothing to keep the Queen’s head on) and knee breeches (the colorful, imaginative costumes are by Cidney Forkpath). Musser’s Aguecheek dances, quips, and provides a sharp, amusing counterpoint to Belch’s hilarious and often drunken pronouncements. When these three are joined by the Fool, Feste (Claire Hilton), midsummer madness ensues.
Malvolio (Marzullo), Olivia’s puritanical steward, interrupts the carousing, in full Scrooge attire, nightshirt, nightcap, and rabbit slippers. Marzullo’s indignation leads to humiliation later on, in one of Shakespeare’s most provocative scenes. Chayes’ light touch as a director, and Marzullo’s confident performance, keep this development from being painful for the audience (as it sometimes is).
Hilton captures all the moods of Feste — jocular, thoughtful, and sad. Her rendition of Feste’s songs is truly moving, sometimes plaintive, sometimes haunting. In a play where music is so important, her voice becomes a kind of lodestar. Feste is the key to one of the most important themes: that the fool is often the true wise man. The wise man, who ridicules his supposed inferior, has really been the fool all along. He addresses her:
FESTE: Good madonna, why mournest thou?
OLIVIA: Good fool, for my brother’s death.
FESTE: I think his soul is in hell, madonna.
OLIVIA: I know his soul is in heaven, fool.
FESTE: The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother’s soul, being in heaven. Take away the fool, gentlemen. (Twelfth Night Act I, Scene 5)
Holder’s Viola is deeply sensitive and charmingly funny. She is horrified when she realizes that Olivia is in love with her as Cesario, but has mixed emotions when she discovers that Orsino is in the exact same position. With a bewildering combination of distress and wonderment, she has fallen in love with him herself.
Cividanes, as her twin Sebastian, is refreshingly straightforward, brave, and overcome with joy at Olivia’s coup de foudre love for him. His relationship with his friend Antonio (Kira Cornell) has sometimes been viewed as homoerotic, based on Antonio’s fulsome declarations of love. Here, Cornell, in cargo pants, a shirt labeled with stars, and a kerchief, brings such an unabashed warmth to their connection that the exact nature of their attachment seems almost irrelevant.
Kent as Countess Olivia is understandably annoyed with just about everything until she sets eyes on Cesario, at which point she scarcely thinks of anything else. Her combination of queenly reserve and breathless infatuation captures Olivia’s contradictions vividly, as she attempts to bring order to the chaos around her.
The Priest who marries Sebastian and Olivia (quick marriages are a feature of Shakespearean comedy), Michael Girts, revels in a perversely entertaining fragility. Fabian (Sofia Hernandez Morales) rejoices in the startlingly contemporary line “If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction,” which got quite a laugh. Bridget Campbell as Curio, Olivia Potter as Valentine, and Lenny Mendez Tercero as the Captain bring the same commitment, flair, and energy as the rest of the cast.
The set is bare, but the cast members bring in various couches, bushes, flowers, and other accouterments at just the right moment. Music, dance, and movement are everywhere. The lighting, by Minjoo Kim, sets the mood and enhances the whirlwind scene. Music, dance and movement are everywhere.
The mysteries of love, the pleasures of mischief, and the true nature of folly. All are subjects of Twelfth Night, sometimes considered Shakespeare’s greatest comedy. Congratulations, and many thanks, to the STC Academy Class of 2026, for sharing their celebration.
Running Time: Approximately two hours and 45 minutes, with one 15-minute intermission.
Twelfth Night, produced by the Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy, plays July 21, 23, and 25, 2026, at the Klein Theatre, 450 7th Street NW, Washington, DC, in repertory with Macbeth. Tickets ($25; $40 for both Macbeth and Twelfth Night) are sold out.
Program notes and credits for the cast and creative team are here.
SEE ALSO:
A tightly run, well-acted, well-designed ‘Macbeth’ from STC Academy (review by Deryl Davis, July 20, 2026)
Twelfth Night
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Jess Chayes
CAST
CURIO/1st Officer: Bridget Campbell
SEBASTIAN: Julian Cividanes
MARIA: Kimberly Colisch
ANTONIO:: Kira Cornell
TOBY BELCH: C.J Craig
PRIEST/ATTENDANT: Michael Girts
FABIAN: Sofia Hernandez Morales
FESTE: Claire Hilton
VIOLA: Cameron Holder
OLIVIA: Kendall Kent
ORSINO: Robert Kittler
MALVOLIO: Anna Marzullo
CAPTAIN/2d OFFICER: Lenny Mendez Terceros
ANDREW AGUECHEEK: Matilda Musser
VALENTINE: Olivia Potter
ARTISTIC TEAM
Director: Jess Chayes
Costume Designer: Cidney Forkpath
Lighting Designer: Minjoo Kim
Sound Designer: Matt Nielson
Fight Director: Robb Hunter
Intimacy Coordinator: Bess Kaye
Voice and Text Coach: Lisa Beley
Assistant Director: Cammiel Hussey
Production Manager: Maddie Caldis
Stage Manager: Regina Vitale
Assistant Stage Manager: Maria Mills
