There is no darkness but ignorance, Feste sings. But the real music is in watching the truth come to light in Shakespeare’s classic comedy of errors, Twelfth Night.

Originally produced for an outdoor performance in Dubrovnik, Croatia, the play’s relocation to the Earl Cameron Theatre for the Bermuda Festival is thanks in no small part to Bermudian cast member Jason Eddy.

The London-based actor plays Duke Orsino, a central character in Shakespeare’s tale of mistaken identity.

When Viola (Helen Watkinson) is washed ashore after a shipwreck, assuming her brother has drowned, she takes on a new identity.

Disguised as a young man, she joins the court of the Duke as Cesario and quickly develops feelings for him.

He in turn is in love with Olivia, who is in mourning after the recent death of her brother. Lady Olivia (a regal Helen Millar) maintains her resistance to the Duke’s proposals until he sends Viola/Cesario. The countess is instead taken by the “young man” and so begins the love triangle central to Shakespeare’s comedy. This fiery adaptation is by Helen Tennison, a movement director, who has worked for venues including Shakespeare’s Globe. It is bright and animated, often cheeky and sometimes racy as the characters navigate 17th-century love in the 21st century.

Using Ms Tennison’s inspiration of La Belle Epoque — a time characterised as between the end of the Franco-Prussian War and the outbreak of the First World War — set designer Marin Gozze’s impressionistic style backdrop in dreamy pastels completes the indoor incarnation of the production.

The Monet-like smatterings matched by the muted costumes of Bryony J. Thompson, gave the colourful cast members the perfect blank canvas and never overshadowed plot devices both loud — Malvolio’s gaudy yellow socks — and subtle, like Olivia’s slow transition from black dress to blush.

Dressing as a man to survive in the world, Viola’s 400-year-old story still rings true. It is remarkable that a play written in 1602 should still be relevant in 2016. Though, as transgender issues are being normalised in today’s media, it appears they were much more tolerant in Elizabethan society, an easy assumption after witnessing the gutsy performances of Ms Millar, Ms Watkinson and Emma Fenny.

While much of the language is lost on modern ears, like silent cinema, the plot relies on the physical and the spirited eccentricities of the characters.

After Olivia unveils herself to Viola, the line “Excellently done, if God did all” gets its laughs from a generation familiar with cosmetic surgery. Feste’s apparent joie de vivre is attenuated by his fondness for recreational drugs.

Playing multiple parts allows the cast to really stretch their acting muscles. James Burton jumps from Curio to Sir Toby to the priest, while Filip Krenus, the show’s producer, is magnificent as the mutually unfortunate Malvolio and Antonio. The characters engage with the audience, regularly breaking from script to the conventions of stand up.

It’s fresh and very, very funny.

While he makes very few appearances as Viola’s missing brother Sebastian, George Oliver makes up for it as Feste, a jester and musician.

His singing and purring incite howls of laughter from the audience. Both comical and sad, he may act the part of the fool, but carries more self awareness than any other character. A pillow fight after his performance brings confused feelings for Orsino, when he finds himself aroused by his man Cesario/Viola. It is then she nearly gives herself away, with the anguished words: “I am all the daughters of my father’s house, And all the brothers too — and yet I know not.”

Everyone, it seems, is looking for love. Cast members move longingly to the sombre tones of the music, their hands grasping the empty air and then brushing their own cheeks in between scenes, a powerful device chosen by the director whose known for her work as the artistic director of Barefeat Physical Theatre.

While Viola finds herself caught up in Orsino’s failed attempts to court Olivia, Olivia’s relatives play a game of their own. In the comic subplot, her maid Maria (a bold Ms Fenney) tricks Malvolio into believing his mistress has fallen for him, while her paramour Sir Toby sends lanky Sir Andrew (Thomas Michael Blyth) into a hilarious slapstick duel against Viola/Cesario.

Though love, it’s said, makes fools of us all, the resolution is sweet. “Journeys end in lovers’ meeting,” Feste sings as that once longing movement becomes a dance in pairs and all falls into place.

The show earned standing ovations on its two-night run, a reminder that Shakespeare will endure as long as the Bermuda Festival continues.