Stolen Shakespeare Guild 'Twelfth Night' plays up comedy

FORT WORTH -- For all the worth of its gender bending, romance and songs, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will remains one of the Bard's most popular works because of its wealth of drunks, clowns and comic characters.

Stolen Shakespeare Guild, in the opening show of its 2012 season, plays that up. Co-directors Jason and Lauren Morgan get fine performances from the women in the cast: Countess Olivia (a radiant Morgan Lauré Garrett), lady in waiting Maria (Laura Jones) and, to a lesser extent, Viola (Kristin Payne), who poses as a man, Cesario. That causes some romantic confusion until the end, when her long-lost twin brother, Sebastian (Michael Reed), connects.

But in this production, more so than others, the play's cutting favors the drunken uncle, Sir Toby Belch (Brad DeBorde), and his love-struck companion, Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Billy Betsill), Olivia's gullible steward, Malvolio (Allen Walker), and the jester, Feste (Kirk Corley).

And why not? DeBorde, who initially seems to be forcing the character's rudeness, settles into an endearing turn as the show's second-most memorable character. The first is Malvolio, who doesn't let his uptightness prevent from taking prank advice for wooing Olivia. Walker gives the best performance here; his distress after the yellow-stocking incident is especially hilarious. Betsill shows off some physical comedy chops with gags involving his sword sheath and fear of confrontation.

The women speak the language most naturally, although Payne's Viola/Cesario is missing something from the confidence scale. More than usual with this play, it's hard to believe that Olivia falls for Cesario so easily.

The production is handsome and moves swiftly, and although it's been a while since this critic has seen a Shakespeare production from this group, they've come a long way.