Are You Havana Affair?

Havana, Cuba, was a wild place in the 1950s, famous for its wealth, its casinos and its tropical nightlife. It gets a little wilder once Viola and her twin brother, Sebastian, are shipwrecked off the coast and then separated. Each searches for the other in this moonlit city; Viola disguises herself as a man named Cesario and takes a job with Orsino, a man she finds to be exceptionally handsome. But Orsino is infatuated with Olivia, who will no longer see him. Orsino uses his new employee as a go-between, with "Cesario" pitching woo so well that Olivia begins to fall for him. Who can keep all the subterfuge, cross-dressing and parties straight anymore? Only the ever-drunken Toby Belch and his idiot friend Andrew Aguecheek seem to have their heads on straight in this cockamamie town. The Washington University Performing Arts Department presents Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, set in 1950s Havana, at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday (April 17 through 20). Performances take place in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre at the Edison Theatre on the Washington University campus (6445 Forsyth Boulevard; 314- 935-6543 or www.edison.wustl.edu). Tickets are $10 to $15.
April 17-18, 8 p.m.; Sat., April 19, 2 & 8 p.m.; Sun., April 20, 2 p.m., 2014