Love triangles, heartbreak, mistaken identity and comedy take the stage as the ISU Theatre brings to life William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” starting this weekend at Fisher Theater.

Patrick Gouran directs the romantic comedy, which features a cast of 15 ISU students. Gouran said the play is nothing like Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” “Othello” or “King Lear.”

“It’s sort of a romp,” he said. “Although at the same time, it does deal with some serious issues, but the treatment of the issues is what makes it a comedy.”

One of the issues the play deals with is pretension, shown in David Byrd’s character Malvolio.

Malvolio desires to be superior to everyone else but is made into a hypocrite by the very people he tries to suppress.

“The first opportunity that he has to achieve something for himself, all of those ethics and standards go flying out the window,” Gouran said.

Byrd describes his character as arrogant and self-absorbed. However, Malvolio is in love with Olivia, played by Molly Vandekrol, but refuses to reveal his love to her.

“He’s lived a fantasy that she will fall in love with him and make him her husband and therefore, he will have power over her cousin Sir Toby Belch … and all the other people of the household,” Byrd said. “He’s obsessed with Olivia and loves her, but more for the fact that he loves himself and loves what she can provide for him.”

The play also centers around Viola, played by Melissa Larsen, who has been shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria and believes her brother Sebastian, played by Kevin Geiken, may have been killed in the wreck.

Lost in Illyria, Viola persuades the sea captain who rescued her, played by Jon Connealy, into dressing her as a man so she can work for Duke Orsino, played by Grant Henderson.

Larsen said her character becomes tangled in a love triangle and struggles to get free.

“All these intricate love triangles go on because [Viola’s] dressed as a boy, and she’s falling in love with Orsino and the countess Olivia is falling in love with her dressed as a boy,” she said. “So she just doesn’t know what to do. She’s got herself in this big mess and doesn’t know how to get her way out of it.”

Gouran said he thinks the audience’s recognition of themselves in the characters is one of the things that makes the play fun.

Plays like “Twelfth Night” make Shakespeare accessible to the audience.

“This shows us a Shakespeare who was a working playwright,” Gouran said.

He said Shakespeare had to address many kinds of people. “He had to appeal to a wide variety of audiences, and some of the earthy humor that we might not find in other plays, we find in ‘Twelfth Night.'”

Gouran added that the visual aspects of the show are “sumptuous.”

“Our designers on this particular one have done an overwhelming job, and I’m talking about set and costumes, making a beautiful, enchanted environment,” he said. “It’s just lovely to look at.”

Byrd said he hopes people will reject the stereotypes that Shakespeare’s plays are boring and difficult to understand and give “Twelfth Night” a try.

“It is a comedy and even though the language may be hard to understand, if you watch the actors and the story that they’re telling you through their body language … you have a hilarious time and enjoy yourself and the story,” he said.

“Twelfth Night” debuts at Fisher Theater this weekend and will be shown Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., as well as Sunday at 2 p.m.

The show will close for two weeks and then reopen Dec. 1, running until Dec. 3. Admission is $4.50 for students, $9 for senior citizens and $10 for general admission.

Tickets are available at the Iowa State Center Ticket Office, all Ticketmaster outlets or by calling (515) 233-1888.