Twelfth Night Hofstra Style

Hofstra's production of Twelfth Night allowed me to have the first experience of seeing Twelfth Night on stage. What I saw surprised me, allowed me to hear the music, and experience the livelihood of interaction between the characters. The director chose to set the play in the post civil war south. The set itself was fantastic, very soft lighting that created Olivia's house stage right and the dukes room stage left. Trees stand tall in the middle of the stage allowing space for the garden. Almost all of the characters took on an accent, though it was the total downfall of the play making it even harder to understand and cognitive dissonance was broken whenever the character changed the nationality or broke the fluency, using a different accent completely.
The lead women, Olivia and Viola, were not as strong as I had hoped they would be. Olivia seemed ditsy, rather than opinionated and determined. She floated around the stage humming her lines without a care, and appeared extremely daintily clingy rather than devoted to Cesario, or any other she showed affection towards. Viola always looked scared rather than certain of her role as a man, and would have been unconvincing to me as anyone because she always had a scared look in her eye.
One character who did acclaim himself with language was Feste, the fool. Playing a guitar, accompanied by his natural singing voice, he captivated any ones attention. He was perfect for the part, playful with the other characters and his sarcasm towards the others created enjoyable entertainment because he was able to communicate with the audience, something the other characters seemed to lack. The comedy definitely took over the show because it was the most relatable aspect. Sir Andrew and Sir Toby, of course, added to the humor with farcical actions. The entire mood of the play was energized and lifted by the three male characters who reside in the heart of the play to engage chaos and humor.
My favorite part of this piece were the songs Feste sang, because it made the entire theater tranqui when playing a beautiful song, and merry with the little diddys. I believe the downfall of the play was its setting and the characters choices it then determined for the entire prouction. I could not say that I thouroughly enjoyed this production but it always interesting to see how modern directors adapt to Shakepearian themes and scripts because the scenes may take play in any variety of places in order for the audience to be more succeptable to connect.