Twelfth Night

Congratulations to Maldon Drama Group for tackling its first Shakespeare, perhaps in honour of the 400th anniversary of the bard’s death. Shakespeare is never easy to convey to a modern audience since so much of the language is arcane and difficult to tune in to. Nevertheless, there were some delightful elements to this production of Twelfth Night that derived its comedy from an examination of exaggerated romantic love through the prisms of gender confusion, mistaken identity and social status. The whole context of the play, indeed the very title, is about holiday misrule and all the role reversals, pranks and jokes that go hand in hand with this festive occasion. I was pleased to see that the intercalation of the live  music (a mandolin?), the highly visual jokes involving Sir Toby’s drinking, the fight scene in the orchard and the humiliation of Malvolio were all designed to entertain.  I also loved the intelligent use of pauses and the facial expressions, particularly between Olivia and Cesario. The pace of the action was swift, with clever use of the few flats and stage props that meant there were few, if any, delays between scenes.  The lighting of the maritime mural/painting above the stage (I have never noticed that before) was a good way to open the play, reminiscent as it was of disaster at sea.

I did feel that the delivery of dialogue could have been slowed down a touch and the consonants emphasized just a little more. Sometimes the audience’s brain can’t keep pace with the dialogue, translating it into contemporary English as we went along. Better enunciation would have helped us. I also felt that a wig of some sort and some make up would have aged and ravaged Scott Peters/Sir Toby Belch a little more. While fat he looked remarkably healthy otherwise for so obvious an alcoholic. Aging him would also have afforded him greater status vs Sir Andew and Malvolio as well as given him greater license to fart and belch as often as he wished.

Overall this was an enjoyable production which should give MDG the confidence to tackle more Shakespeare or other classics. Restoration Comedy perhaps?

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