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Pretty decent show. I don't like Veanne Cox, who played Olivia. I generally find that her emotional tenor is wrong, too much or not enough, and there is something to the timbre of her voice which I find irritating, in that nails on chalkboard way, but relatively mild. Peter Katona was pretty useless as Sebastian, but that's…the nature of the role. I'm not sure I've ever seen an inspired Sebastian.

Nancy Robinette played Maria, which was interesting. She's older than I've ever seen the role played before, so it came off more lusty nurse than serving wench. Interesting, but not bad. I like her a lot and was glad to see her. Floyd King played Feste and was as excellent as one would expect. Fools are pretty much his specialty. Ted van Griethuysen played Malvolio and, really, I think he's got a little too much inherent dignity for the role to sit easily. It's just not as funny as it should be, making fun of him.

Christopher Invar and Samantha Soule played Orsino and Viola, respectively. (Happily, Soule and Katona were of a size and a complexion ... for the purposes of the theatre, they looked exactly alike.) Christopher Invar's really good, and I hope we see him back more often at Shakespeare Theatre, but … I'm over the homosexual panic interpretation of Orsino grooving on Cesario. I kind of want the one where Orsino has a rolling orgy, and, the sweet talking he's doing of Olivia is mostly about getting an heir. Or I just want him to be chill and bisexual. The whole "Eek! A boy!" thing is more offensive than amusing.

But overall, I enjoyed myself and was quite pleased with the production. The giant rose petals were pretty, and the rose petal falls were pretty, and the 'hiding in the bushes' choreography was fabulous fun. And I loved what they did by way of musical accompaniment, the live strings and a singer were interesting and atmospheric.

In short, if you like Shakespeare or Twelfth Night or live, classical theatre, you should go see it.