Twelfth Night

Nov. 5-15, 2026

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Steve Dooner

Evening shows are at 7:30 PM

William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is a brilliant exploration of the masks we wear and the people we choose to love. The story begins with a literal and metaphorical upheaval: a shipwreck that strands the resourceful Viola on a foreign shore. Believing her twin brother lost to the sea, she adopts a male disguise for protection, inadvertently setting off a chain reaction of romantic chaos.

The play thrives on a "merry war" of social classes and temperaments. While the noble characters languish in the poetic agonies of unrequited love, the household staff and hangers-on engage in a riotous subplot of pranks and revelry. Shakespeare masterfully balances these two worlds — one sophisticated and sighing, the other crude and vengeful — to show that folly is a universal human trait regardless of rank.

What makes Twelfth Night endure is its bittersweet edge. It is a world where identity is fluid, gender is a costume, and the line between a joke and cruelty is razor-thin. It invites the audience to laugh at the absurdity of the human heart while acknowledging that, even in a comedy, "the rain it raineth every day."