Many Shakespeare comedies could easily turn tragic with a simple turn of events. "Twelfth Night" is not one of them. As the revival running at The Stagecrafters Theater shows, it is a gloriously comic play that refuses to take itself seriously. 

 Viola is shipwrecked in the land of Ilyria. To search for her lost brother Sebastian, she dresses as the boy Cesario. She makes her way to the court of Duke Orsino, where Cupid lets his arrows fly, and the plot grows so farfetched it becomes its own comedy. 

Orsino makes Cesario his emissary in pleading his love to high-born Olivia. Haughty Olivia is not interested in Orsino but takes one look at soft-cheeked Cesario (Viola) and is smitten. Beneath her page-boy attire, Viola has fallen in love with the Duke and breaks the third wall to lament: "It is too hard a knot for me to untie."

For over two hours, director Patrick Martin maintains a light-hearted tone. A score of stagehands helped set designer Stephanie Hessler build and paint a fairytale town on the rear wall with doors and archways. Singer-guitarist Rebecca Zimmerman's opening number introduces you to a play full of Renaissance music from beginning to end. 

On the surface, "Twelfth Night" is a farcical love-triangle story. As Viola, Heather Birmingham is a winning presence whose face radiates an underlying glow, even when matters are at their most grim. By contrast, Matt Rydzewski's Orsino is dour and self-loving. At first, Brittany Kathleen Fauzer's Olivia is sternly aristocratic, but we soon learn about her comical lack of self-command. 

However, a swirl of other characters overwhelms this love triangle to the extent that "Twelfth Night" doesn’t focus on a true central story or central characters. Under director Patrick Martin, the Stagecrafters production is more engaging than other "Twelfth Night" productions I have seen because the frantic pace is in line with the whirligig speed of its subplots. 

Sir Toby Belch (Chris Braak) and Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Steven Butler) freeload at Olivia's court. The comedy of their drunk and craven antics quickens when they connect with Maria (Taahira Teshi), Olivia's fun-loving and scheming gentlewoman. She hatches a plan to humiliate Malvolio, Olivia’s puritanical household steward whose name connotes ill will. 

The two scenes with Malvolio steal the show, and Larry Arrigale shines in a role an actor would die for. In the first scene, the plotters use the planted letter ploy to trick Malvolio into believing that Olivia adores him. The second scene is the famous gartered yellow stocking scene in which Malvolio makes such a fool of himself that Olivia thinks he is insane. 

Nolan Maher stars as Feste, one of Shakespeare's finest wise-fool characters. The only clear-sighted character in the play, Feste cruises on and off the stage, delivering quips and ridiculing infatuation as a form of insanity.  

"Twelfth Night" is a romp in the spirit of the Roman Saturnalia, the ancient festival historically linked to the holiday of Christmas. And, with the Cromwell revolution that marked England’s shift toward Parliamentary government on the horizon, Puritan Malvolio's parting words ring like a chilling prophecy: "I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you."

The Stagecrafters Theater is located at 8130 Germantown Ave. "Twelfth Night" runs through June 29. Tickets are available at 215-247-8881.