Twelfth Night

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is another entry in his "mistaken identities" catalog, but it is perhaps his most effective use of the trope. Rather than litter the stage with multiple sets of twins, her he gives us a brother and sister, Viola and Sebastian. Separated in a shipwreck, they unknowingly end up in the same city. Viola goes undercover as a man to find her missing brother, and ends up in service to handsome Duke Orsino. He uses her as a messenger boy to woo his love, Olivia. Olivia falls in love with the silver-tongued, comely lad, and Viola ends up in some uncomfortable clinches -- she is herself falling in love with Orsino, after all. And he finds his messenger boy to be unaccountably attractive from certain angles, which causes him some confusion. The B-plot follows a couple of roister-doisters, Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, as they torment Olivia's steward, Malvolio. St. Louis Shakespeare presents Twelfth Night at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (October 2 through 11) at the Ivory Theatre (7260 Michigan Avenue; 314-361-5664 or www.stlshakespeare.org). There is one 7:30 p.m. show on Thursday, October 8. Tickets are $15 to $20.