Berkshire on Stage

Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare’s merry romp of grief transformed, reversed course Tuesday night before it ever started. Shakespeare & Company’s summer comedy planned for the Arthur S. Waldstein Amphitheater had to move inside to the chill Tina Packer Theatre due to the sweltering heat, as Tuesday turned out to be one of the hottest days of the summer so far.

So, there would be no sunset among the pines in Illyria, the Bard’s mythical setting. No stage set by Erika Johnson and Sean Sweeney but there would be sumptuous costumes (imagine wearing all those layers in the heat!) by Govane Lohbauer, and stage choreography using at least eight different entrances from the stage and the house and blocking that immediately made itself home in the new surroundings incorporating a knife fight and plenty of lazzi PLUS, most importantly on Tuesday, a cool temperature that had audience members snuggling under their fashionable neck scarves. The company was ready for anything under the impeccable direction of Kate Koehler Amory and fight choreography by company mainstay Ryan Winkles, who also played the proud homosexual pirate Antonio.

Twelfth Night is a dizzying whirl of assumed identities, professed love and missed connections. Twins Sebastian and Viola lose each other in a shipwreck and assume the other has perished. Viola takes on the guise of a young man Cesario who serves in the court of Count Orsino. Orsino sends the new man to his intended, the grief stricken Olivia, with love letters to woo her. Olivia instead falls in love with Cesario while Viola has set her cap on Orsino.

The play starts with a disaster at sea but this is a comedy as introduced by Nick Nudler, who hilariously plays the clown Feste and can get as many laughs with Shakespeare’s words as with his physical business and is also surprisingly a superb musician as well. No easy feat and he proves himself to be one of the most valuable players of the evening.

Olivia’s house is filled with merriment despite her hanging on to the loss of her brother. Her game and encouraging maid Maria, played warmly by Rory Hammond, and her right hand man Malvolio, Artistic Director Allyn Burrows feasting on the prig of a role, do everything they can to contain the high sprits of Olivia’s drunk Uncle, Sir Toby Belch (the deliriously funny and well cast “ranney”) and his guest Sir Andrew Aguecheek, J. Austyn Williamson. Williamson can puff himself up, cower with fright and carouse with the best of them and the best of them is “ranney.”His elasticity and quicksilver choices made me appreciate Sir Andrew in full.

It is hard to imagine a stronger ensemble taking on this play, every member of the cast is excellent! Tamara Hickey as Olivia has a jewel of an opening scene with Kirsten Peacock’s Cesario which wastes no time scaling the heights of attraction and love. Omar Robinson, dressed resplendently in a floor length, gold embroidered robe commands attention as Orsino. David Bertoldi arrives just in time to take his place alongside Olivia and has a loving embrace with the pirate Antonio which only deepens the play’s mutabilities of identity. Ryan Winkles has a swashbuckling entrance making the most of the pirate.

The production features traditional Celtic songs, some that I recognized from the classic Van Morrison and The Chieftains album, “Irish Heartbeat.” Nick Nudler even taught the audience a song at the top of Act II. The show had a run time of two and a half hours.

The costumes designed by Govane Lohbauer are a riot of plaid with the twins wearing sharp, matching vests that had purple and green, Malvolio had a yellow MacLeod tartan kilt to go with his cross gartered stockings and Feste has a drape hanging from his waist incorporating a couple of plaid flannels which would not look out of place in Seattle in the ‘90s grunge scene. Extraordinarily beautiful costumes.

Twelfth Night takes us from the dark into the light and no one embodies that more than Tamara Hickey’s Olivia who lifts her veil of mourning. Her enraptured smile fills the theatre. It is the emotional equivalent of a fast drive over the Berkshire Mountains with stunning vistas revealed, surprising and delighting us in unexpected ways. As the love struck Olivia exclaims “Most wonderful!”

“Adding to Patrick White’s glowing review of Twelfth Night, Kate Kohler Amory’s perfect production at Shakespeare & Company’s Tina Packer Theatre, I maintain that there could be no more fitting tribute to the memory of Tina Packer and the brilliant company she co-founded.  This spectacular comedy, directed, choreographed, sung, danced, and performed by a go-for-broke cast, rekindles the memory of Packer’s greatest productions at the Mount.  She must be so pleased and proud of what her company has wrought!”

– Barbara Waldinger, BoS critic

Shakespeare & Company presents “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare, directed by Kate Koehler Amory, outdoors in the Arthur S. Waldstein Amphitheater July 4–26, 2026. CAST: Kirsten Peacock as Viola, Omar Robinson as Orsino, Tamara Hickey as Olivia, Nick Nudler as Feste, “ranney” as Sir Toby Belch, J. Austyn Williamson as Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Valentine, Rory Hammond as Maria, David Bertoldi as Sebastian, Ryan Winkles as the Sea Captain and Antonio, Allyn Burrows as Malvolio and Officer. CREATIVE TEAM: Costume Designer Govane Lohbauer, Scenic Designers Sean Sweeney and Erika Johnson, Lighting Designers Luke Wilson and Erika Johnson, Sound Designer Liz Stanton, Dance Captain Kirsten Peacock, Fight Coordinator Ryan Winkles, Vocal Coaches Ariel Bock and Rory Hammond, Stage Manager Hope Rose Kelly, Assistant Stage Managers Grace Goosman and Kathleen H. Soltan.

Runtime: 2 hours, 20 minutes; one intermission

Shakespeare & Company is located at 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA 01240. Box Office: (413) 637-3353. Email: boxoffice@shakespeare.org