Knapp was instrumental in sparking the original play and says this production will be his last at Kennedy Theatre, as he retires from teaching at the University.

The latest production is fresh, elegant and refined to the eye, and pleasing to the heart.

While Benton converted 400-year-old Elizabethan verse into Hawaiian pidgin and gave the original characters acceptable Hawaiian identities, his version remains true to the spirit of the work.

"twelf night" is all about the pain of unrequited love, the result of misplaced ambition, and the confusion that results from cross-dressing.

Shakespeare's noble characters Orsino and Olivia each fall in love with Viola, who is disguised as a man. The playwright's comic rustics trick Olivia's steward Malvolio into believing his mistress loves him. And pandemonium results from the arrival of Viola's twin brother.

All the comic elements remain in the pidgin version, where romantic confusion across gender lines and unrestrained practical-joking are given a light and glancing touch. The play appropriately remains a comedy where social inhibitions are jettisoned in favor of a good time.

Noelle Poole plays Princess Mahealani (Olivia) with good grace and noble articulation, but with a surprising and spontaneous bawdy side. D.J. Wilkie is a stiffly proper Prince Amalu (Orsino), who never truly unbends. And Kelcie Awo takes on the transgendered, "britches," messenger role of Lahela (Viola).

But the weight in this production tips in favor of the misbehaving comics, with Troy Apostol as Malolio (Malvolio) leading the pack.

Apostol has a good grasp of the character's stuffy propriety and transitions him first to inordinate romantic smarminess and ultimately to near madness as the joke gets out of hand.

Alvin Chan and Chi Ho Law are excellent as the drinking buddies Count Opunui and Sir Andy Waha. Jabez Armodia is everywhere as Lope (Feste, the Fool), jazzing things up with his 'ukulele and shaking a mostly bare booty throughout the comic scenes. Jamy Torres contributes as an instigating housekeeper.

The physical production is gorgeous. Set designer Joseph Dodd creates a pristine white gazebo topped with pineapple finials.

He surrounds it with black plastic streamers that twinkle like moonlight reflected by waves and palm trees that stand out against lighting designer Dean Bellin's Technicolor.

Sandra Finney's costumes are both elegant and clownish, featuring military jackets and 1930s Hawaiian touches.