By Jackie Demaline
Enquirer staff reporter

On a magical island, a young woman disguises herself as the twin brother she thinks has died. She falls in love with a melancholy nobleman who thinks he loves a grieving lady who in turn spurns him - but who falls in love at first sight with our heroine.

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, says director Ed Stern, "is a story about many people who believe, because of tragic circumstances in their lives, that love is nowhere in their futures. Through the miracle of life they experience their hearts warming by finding kindred spirits.

"The honesty of the play is that there are other characters who do believe in love but discover in the course of the action that it won't happen for them."

At Playhouse in the Park, the action is set in the Napoleonic era for no better reason than that everyone will look fabulous. Those empire waisted gowns are both elegant and sensuous, and Masterpiece Theatre renditions of Jane Austen novels have made all women fans of breeches on gentlemen.

There will also be 3,000 gallons of water lapping up at the rocky surface of the stage, because for all the romance, these characters are also isolated, and heroine Viola, in particular, is a stranger in a strange land.

It's no coincidence, Stern adds, that in the five years before Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night he was dealing with two significant deaths, including that of his son.

"Several of the characters in the play are also dealing with death. (The play) encompasses not only heartache but also great joy. In any great comedy of life, miracles can happen, transformations are entirely possible. Twelfth Night is in many ways a demonstration of the power of the heart to heal."

Twelfth Night, Sept. 7-Oct. 8, Playhouse in the Park, Eden Park. 421-3888.

Jackie Demaline