The Clemson Players presented a production of William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” last weekend, bringing one of the Bard’s most iconic plays to the Brooks Center’s stage. While the original text is a classic for a reason, this particular staging missed the mark.

With that being said, the play was not overall bad; some characters were either underplayed or misinterpreted, but the show did have several high points.

One of the most memorable aspects of the play was before the curtains even rose, when members of the cast known as the Bibble Babble Rabblers walked through the audience, playing instruments and singing. This got the audience engaged and ready for what was to come, even including thunder strikes throughout their pre-performance. The sound effects set the stage for the opening scene: a shipwreck caused by a storm.

To articulate what did and didn’t work about this production, four aspects of the play will be addressed: casting, chemistry between the characters, set design and interpretation of the original text by the directors.

Clara Anne Coleman, who played Viola, was a great choice for the role. However, she sometimes fell out of character. With her playing the main role, I was looking for more strength once she went undercover as a man. Compare her performance to Amanda Bynes’s in “She’s the Man,” a modern update of “Twelfth Night.” Bynes’ character struggles to become a man fully; however, she focuses on the mannerisms men carry. Coleman needed more of this to make it more believable that she was playing a man in a woman’s body. However, I do believe she executed her character well overall and even outshone her co-stars at times.

The other main woman in the play, Olivia, played by Caroline Greco, started as one of my least favorite characters, but quickly became a favorite. At first, I felt as if she wasn’t getting the audience’s attention and often thought the other characters around her were doing better. She quickly grabbed the audience’s attention, though, by turning her extremely stern mentality into a playful, joyful character. She became one of the most memorable performers in the show. I believed her in every little aspect I was supposed to, whether she was yearning for Cesario, otherwise known as Viola, becoming frustrated when things didn’t go her way or confused once she realized Sebastian and Viola were two different people. Overall, she obviously put in the work, and it showed.

Another character I did not love at first but came to enjoy by the end was Malvolio. Actor Meredith Cameron was underwhelming in the beginning, but had a breakthrough midway through the performance. Perhaps she intentionally toned down her character to make it feel bigger towards the end. Still, her exaggerated, flamboyant performance worked for me — it drew multiple laughs from the crowd, and she delivered a particularly long monologue very well and in an exceptionally funny fashion.

Lanneau Siegling, who played Sebastian, completely missed the mark on his role. It felt as if he didn’t understand the character in its true form. He could not create confusion, which was his character’s purpose. I would have loved to see him give the audience a better sense of what it feels like to be lost at sea, as he came across as very monotone — at times, it even felt like he did not want to be there.

Patrick Hennessey’s Orsino also failed to capture the audience’s attention. However, this struck me as strange, given that he was part of the band that played before the performance — a role in which he was quite good. Once he fully settled into his role, it felt as if something was missing: emotion. While he was saying his lines, they didn’t seem to mean anything to him. I wanted to believe he was yearning for Olivia and that he was somehow developing feelings for Cesario, but he lacked both.

My favorite part of the show, hands down, was the dynamic between Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, played by Alexander Wetherell and Loren Christensen. They had the entire crowd in the palm of their hands with their wit and commitment to the characters. Both had their own moments to shine, but constantly played off each other. It felt like they were best friends on stage, with the best chemistry between the characters throughout the play. When they wandered through the crowd during one of Malvolio’s monologues, they drew more attention than Malvolio, whom the scene was even centered on. From my view of the stage, Christensen used the Brooks Center space beautifully, even engaging the audience. Whether they were pretending to drink together or doing crazy dance moves, they were the most captivating and well-chosen actors for the roles.

Both Coleman and Hennessey lacked chemistry between their two characters. Throughout the play, the audience should have felt as if they were developing feelings for each other; however, by the end, it just seemed awkward. Once they ended up together, it seemed both rushed and unrealistic.

On the other hand, Greco and Coleman absolutely nailed the one-sided chemistry they set out to achieve. Greco clearly portrayed how her character goes from being unavailable to becoming infatuated with one person. Coleman, meanwhile, placed great emphasis on being completely engaged with Orsino. The girls worked well together.

After touring the scene shop and hearing from the artists who created the show’s set, I appreciated what they had accomplished for this play. The evocation of two different locations was accomplished through different colors, but similar setups. At the beginning of the play, the artists also used drapes to represent a ship’s sails, which were perfectly suited for the task.

On the other hand, they could have added more dynamic sets to make the play feel less static at times. If they had added even a few moving sets, the audience would have been even more captivated by what they were watching.

While looking at the director’s cuts, I think some changes were respectful of the original text and made sense. I also believe that more cuts or edits could have been made through long monologues to make them more concise and intriguing to listen to. If the directors had wanted to maintain the original text, they could also have encouraged the actors to make bolder stylistic choices in their individual work to similarly enhance the audience’s engagement.

Overall, the play wasn’t terrible, but the cast and crew missed opportunities to make it more engaging and keep the audience on their feet.

The Clemson Players’ final production of their 2025-26 season, “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” will run from April 13-19 in the Bellamy Theatre.