Twelfth Night

After months of being denied the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience, Water Lane was obviously raring to go and most certainly on top form for their picnic presentation of this hilarious version of “Twelfth Night”.  This was Shakespeare on holiday in what the programme describes as a (relatively) upmarket resort. Costumes were modern with a nod to the traditional.  I’m sure the Bard would have thoroughly approved.

Performing in a large outdoor space calls for good projection and the society has a number of experienced actors for whom this was not a problem. A dour Richard Pink declaring himself to be Head of Compliance opened the proceedings.  Cat Quigley as Fabienne was a great over the top holiday rep with Paul Winspear (Feste)  looking a decidedly bored Head of Fun.  Your normal package holiday this was not, although there may be those who disagree.

There were excellent performances from Nancy Jones as the flirtatious Olivia and Hannah-Marie Juggins as Viola who, disguised as Cesario, a boy, becomes the object of Olivia’s desires.  Matt Juggins used his powerful speaking voice to great effect as Orsino, the character with whom Viola is in love and Andy Roberts made a great Sir Andrew Aguecheek.  I made a note by his name which says ‘funny sunnies’ and they certainly were a great comedic touch. There were other strong performances from Michael Beavan as Viola’s twin brother Sebastian and Will Jamieson as Sir Toby Belch. Granville Rush was obviously enjoying playing Malvolio whose dreams of marrying Olivia are shattered when he appears in yellow stockings and cross garters. Hilarious.  I’m sure Amanda Green had a lot of people fooled when she was coaxed from the audience following the plea for a priest. 

Everyone in the cast did a great job in bringing their character to life and what is more, they were all obviously enjoying every minute of it. Well done to the children who were having a lot of fun running to the beach and back throughout the evening.

The Monastery Garden is a lovely setting, lending itself perfectly to the re-enactment of Shakespeare’s works. It is however a vast space and there were times when I felt the action was rather too spread out. We were seated centrally with an excellent view (thank you Richard) but were aware that those seated further along on both sides may have had difficulty seeing and hearing what was going on.  I’m sure the Director had his reasons for using the space as he did, even though it involved the cast doing a lot of running back and forth. Could this have been to capture the attention of those still enjoying their picnics? Personally I would have preferred the action to have been more contained.  That said, it was a lot of fun with the majority of the audience showing their appreciation throughout.  

The icing on the cake was of course the weather.  A lovely warm evening with not a drop of rain in sight.  I do hope it stayed that way for the rest of the run. Congratulations to all involved in putting this production together.  No mean feat in a pandemic.

Thank you for inviting me.

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