THEATER REVIEW : A Mad, Merry Tea Party in ‘Night’ at the Waltmar

Carl Reggiardo has staged a “Twelfth Night” for Shakespeare Orange County, at Chapman University’s Waltmar Theatre, that happily steals from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice” books.

The idea is that the land of Ilyria, on which Viola (Kamella Tate) is shipwrecked, is like the Looking Glass world into which Alice drops. Both works are about the perils felt by young women in a strange land filled with goofy characters who talk artful nonsense.

But directors’ concepts can be curious, to use Alice’s favorite word; the more they take hold, the more one can begin to doubt the connection.

Lovelorn Olivia (Pauline Maranian), the countess who swoons for servant Cesario (actually Viola in disguise), wears a headdress reminiscent of Carroll’s the Duchess. The pompous, self-loving Malvolio (Wayne Alexander) wears a wig shaped like rabbit’s ears--the White Rabbit.

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Sir Toby Belch (Daniel Bryan Cartmell) has some of Humpty Dumpty’s portliness, and likes to sit on a wall. Court jester Feste (Michael Nehring) resembles, first, the Mad Hatter, then the Caterpillar as he curls up in a corner smoking a pipe.

The tie-in begins to fray, though, with the costumes themselves (expertly crafted by Cathy Crane-McCoy). While Carroll was satirizing the British royal state and the Victorian one in particular, the costumes and Suzie Goff’s set (though cleverly sprinkled with hearts and artificial facades) fix things in the Mediterranean Renaissance.

In fact, the “Alice” connection is only skin deep. It isn’t Viola who thinks the Ilyrians are mad, but her long-lost twin brother, Sebastian (Michael Strickland, who doesn’t effectively twin with Tate). Belch is no hapless Humpty Dumpty, but a wily plotter of mischief. Malvolio is never late for a very important date--just a fool-in-the-making.

Otherwise, though, you have a very nicely read “Twelfth Night” that tends to balance the play’s loving and clowning well. There could be far more sparks between Viola and Olivia, though Tate gets funnier as her Viola realizes the trap she has set for herself.

Reggiardo’s Duke and Alexander’s Malvolio are cleverly mirrored here, more in love with the idea of being desired than with the one (Olivia) they each believe is desiring them.

The mischievous torture of Malvolio remains painfully drawn-out, but the plotters are a funny bunch: Cartmell’s Belch suggests a legitimate power-seeker who took the wrong career track and John Shouse’s Sir Andrew is modestly understated, while Nehring milks every moment of Feste’s punning and singing. Long after the “Alice” echoes have faded, it’s the confidence of Reggiardo’s cast steering through “Twelfth Night’s” many moods that remains.

* “Twelfth Night,” Waltmar Theatre, Chapman University, 301 E. Palm Ave., Orange. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 and 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 6. $16 - $23. (714) 744-7016. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.