Double delight ‘Night’

YOU never know just what internecine politics are happening backstage at any given theater. But judging solely from the onstage ambience, the actors in “Twelfth Night,” now playing in repertory at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, are having a rip-roaring good time that they are more than happy to share with their audience.

But then, what’s not to enjoy? The outdoor setting of the Theatricum, nestled in the hills of Topanga Canyon, is the perfect natural amphitheater for Shakespeare’s tale of mistaken identity and romantic confusion. And the performers, under the direction of Ellen Geer, assisted by Mike Peebler, render Shakespeare’s bawdy, pun-filled language richly intelligible.

Geer sets the action in the Gay ‘90s, complete with male and female quartets singing tunes from the period. One wishes that Geer had more consistently incorporated the fin de siecle period into the main action. However, even though the quaint musical curtain raisers succeed more as novel framework than essential structural support, they do set an appropriately nostalgic mood.

The stalwart cast includes a convincingly boyish Catherine Talton as Viola, the shipwrecked maiden who dons manly attire to join the court of Duke Orsino (compelling Joshua Wolf Coleman). Smitten with unrequited love for the reclusive Olivia (humorously dry Willow Geer), Orsino dispatches his new “male” courtier to press his suit.

Of course, Olivia falls hard not for the duke but for his smooth-cheeked messenger. When Viola’s twin brother, Sebastian (Simon Hamlin, who looks like he could actually be Talton’s brother), arrives in the duke’s kingdom of Illyria, misapprehensions multiply.

And clowns abound. As Feste, Viola’s fool, Melora Marshall cavorts copiously, punctuating the action with cymbal clashes and vulgar Elizabethan double-entendres. Steve Peterson’s Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Olivia’s would-be suitor, is comically gawky, a walking sight gag. Jim LeFave, as Olivia’s drunken kinsman, Sir Toby Belch, is an effective roisterer, albeit a shade young to be dallying with Olivia’s buxom maidservant, Maria (always gratifying stage vet Barbara Tarbuck).

Yet when it comes to comic dexterity, Alan Blumenfeld takes the evening’s honors as Malvolio, Olivia’s overbearing steward, who has dangerous notions above his station. As physically agile as he is commodious, Blumenfeld wrests every laugh from his richly contemptible character and stops the show on several occasions.

*

‘Twelfth Night’

Where: Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga

When: 8 p.m. Saturday and June 24; 3 p.m. July 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 and Sept. 9, 16, 23 and 30. Also 6:30 p.m. Sept. 4.

Ends: Sept. 30

Price: $15 to $25

Info: (310) 455-3723, www.theatricum.com.

Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes