Nightmare

The play works best when it's at its quietest. Shakespeare has filled it with lovely ballads (such as "Come Away, Death") for which composer Karl Mansfield has provided soft acoustic accompaniment. (Musicians are Victor Avdienko, Greg Barnett, Kerri Dillman, and Fritz Hansen.) Feste (Bob Greene), Olivia's clown, sings them in a pleasing tenor voice. With his Renaissance jester's outfit, and a misshapen leg that from time to time required the assistance of a crutch (although now and then he was able to walk without even a limp), he pulls the show out of its pedestrian doldrums and gives it a plaintively romantic tone. Which works wonderfully well against the star-filled sky.

Twelfth Night runs through Sept. 7.