Twelfth Night Is Hot Shakespeare. Seriously, There is No Air Conditioning at Bumbling Fools Meadery

Twelfth Night you may remember, is the Shakespeare play with a shipwreck. Need more? Okay, it’s the one with twins. Still not sure? This one has a woman disguised as a man! 😀 Yep, it’s one of those, which, I realize, doesn’t exactly narrow it down for anyone not well-versed in Shakespeare.

I’m decently versed myself, I see eight to ten productions of his plays a year, alongside roughly 150 non-Shakespeare shows. Thankfully, Twelfth Night is one I’ve seen a couple of times, most recently about three years ago by Ten Thousand Things. So I had a fighting chance of following this production.

Let me explain why that matters.

I generally love a show staged in a unique space, so I was excited to head to Bumbling Fools Meadery for the first time. I was picturing something like Sociable Ciderwerks, where you can currently catch a production of Hamlet. This is…not that.

First off, I felt lucky just to find the place. My GPS initially led me to what appeared to be a deserted industrial building. Seeing no cars or people, I retreated to the main road and tried another driveway. There, at last, were cars, and a sign for Bumbling Fools Meadery. Well, “sign” might be generous. It looked more like a bedsheet with the name painted on it.

I parked and descended some sketchy stairs, fully prepared to encounter either a box office attendant or my untimely demise. Thankfully, I was greeted by the friendly, familiar face of Jackson Hoemann ready to check me in, not a hulking brute in a burlap mask ready to check me out. From there, I explored the basement in search of mead, or in my case, a non-alcoholic option. I had a delightful beverage called a switchel (I went with cinnamon), which I enjoyed immensely.

Now, this all sounds kind of fun, and it is. It’s very mom-and-pop…if Mom and Pop were more “wake and bake” than “spit and polish.” That’s not a bad thing, it just helps to set expectations so no one walks in unprepared.

This labyrinthian basement has no air conditioning whatsoever. I attended on a Friday night when it was approximately 125 degrees in the freezer, thermometers were unable to measure the temperature in the shade.

The show begins at 7:00, but you’ll want to arrive by 6:30 for about 30 minutes of Appalachian mountain music performed by the cast. The music, both before and during the show, is one of the highlights of the experience.

After the preshow, we are invited into your Uncle Scruffy and Aunt Ruth’s laundry room, where the play is performed. Box fans line the walls, bravely attempting to battle the heat. In what may be one of the kindest gestures ever extended to an audience, each person is given a frozen bottle of water. You can rub it over yourself to cool down, and by the halfway point of the 90-minute show, it has melted into something you can drink, assuming you never tire of lukewarm water.

So, back to that “fighting chance” I mentioned earlier.

We are hot. We are uncomfortable. We are audibly crinkling frozen water bottles against our bodies. Box fans hum softly but constantly, in the background. And then the show begins, at a chaotic pace. Productions of Twelfth Night typically run 2.5 to 3 hours; this one clocks in at 90 minutes. In one sense, thank God. In another, you lose much of what helps acclimate an audience to Shakespeare.

It took me a solid 15 to 20 minutes to sort out who was and what there relationships were, and I pieced that together mostly from memory of past productions. Shakespeare can be wonderful, but it can also be challenging. Because of that, you need to do everything possible to help the audience connect.

There are many good elements in this production, but also some head-scratchers, or maybe that’s just part of the flea-market aesthetic of the setting. You know how you sometimes feel like you’ve picked up actual fleas after walking through a flea market? Maybe it’s just me, but I itch for a day after being dragged through antique stores and garage sales.

If you have an uncomfortable audience who are battling heat and noise distractions, it needs to be made very clear who is who and what’s going on, particularly if you have twins who are in disguise. I’m honestly not sure what the unifying concept here was. Hill people? Is that a concept? There are Dukes and Countesses, yet much of the costuming leans toward a sort of hobo motif. And in a particularly baffling makeup choice, several cast members appear to be suffering from some kind of skin condition, which is perhaps, the result of too much flea marketing.

The bottom line: the show is sold out. So I’m having a bit of fun with this review while also trying to steer those of you with tickets in the right direction. Read a synopsis beforehand. Bring a personal fan. Wear a Speedo or bikini, no judgment. And maybe pack some antifungal cream, just in case the skin condition is catching.

I’m glad I went. I’m equally glad my wife bailed. I could appreciate the strengths and rely on my familiarity with Shakespeare. She doesn’t share that interest and likely would have been lost, as would anyone unfamiliar with the play.

One of the most important aspects of performing Shakespeare is conveying meaning, even when the language itself isn’t fully understood. This cast is capable of doing that. They’re just battling extensive cuts, background noise, and an audience too distracted by discomfort to fully meet them halfway.

Brick by Brick Players seems to be sort of a poor man’s Ten Thousand Things. They are doing Shakespeare, they are touring it around to make in accessible to people who might not get to see it otherwise. I don’t think this is a bad production I think it’s an interesting one that is battleing some extreme circumstances and a nasty rash.

Twelfth Night runs through July 25th at Bumbling Fools Meadery. For more information and to join the waitlist for tickets go to https://www.brickbybrickplayers.org/whoweare-1

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