Twelfth Night (With A Twist) – Raven Performing Arts Center

Free Shows at West Plaza Park!

Written by William Shakespeare (and a few others)
Directed by Steven David Martin

Orsino loves Olivia, Olivia loves Cesario, Cesario loves Orsino. The very nature of true love is at the heart of Shakespeare’s masterpiece of love, lust, mistaken identity, and bawdy humor. Set in the Roaring 1920s, the Raven’s production features music, dance, and our own surprise twist sure to provoke more than a few raised eyebrows!

What’s “the twist” in the Raven Players’ production? “I won’t spoil our spunky take on the traditional ending,” said director Steven David Martin, who is also the company’s artistic director. “But I will say I’ve always found it odd that the same person who penned, ‘To me she is married, not unto my clothes,’ also wrote plays where the female lead spends 90% of the play dressed as a man and inevitably a woman falls in love with the cross-dressed woman but drops her like a hot potato when the cross-dressed woman’s twin brother shows up because … wait for it … he is a he, not a she.”

There were a few other changes, as well. “Suffice it to say that we ‘borrowed’ a few lines from other Shakespeare plays and sonnets, then tied it all together with some verse by a lesser writer,” Martin explained. “Voilà, we have an ending that, to me, makes a little more emotional sense.”

If the surprise twist isn’t enough to rile the purists, Martin set the production in the roaring 1920s, whose jazz age spirit is the perfect environment for this high-spirited tale of love, lust, and misunderstanding.

These performances are free thanks to the generous sponsorship of Barbara Grasseschi and Tony Crabb. Bring blankets and chairs to enjoy Shakespeare under the stars!

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West Plaza Park

10 North Street - Healdsburg