Twelfth Night

TWELFTH NIGHT - WILD WILL THEATRE COMPANY MOTHECOMBE 28/08/25
The first professional Shakespeare production l ever saw was Twelfth Night. My family had moved
to a village just outside Stratford-on-Avon and we saw Diana Rigg as Viola and David Warner as
Aguecheek (can’t remember any more, although l suspect Brewster Mason played Belch). Like
hundreds of other 14 year olds l was madly in love with Diana Rigg, playing Emma Peel in The
Avengers. I suspect that my opinion of that production was slightly swayed by this adulation.
Yesterday l saw the Wild Will theatre company performing the same piece in very different
surroundings. Let me say at the outset that l love open-air Shakespeare - that magical moment
when artificial light takes over from natural light is one of the greatest coups de theatre, in my
humble opinion. Unfortunately, we weren’t to be treated to this experience last night as, in the way
of many open-air productions at this time of year, the British weather was against us. But let’s not
let that get in the way of what was a very fine production of this play.
l had never visited Mothecombe before and was unaware of the potential this beautiful
scenic landscape could lend to open-air theatre - and Wild Will (very ably directed by Rob Heyland)
made the most of it. I particularly liked the way that Heyland had restructured the opening of the
piece (loved the inclusion of lines from The Tempest!) and used different areas of the landscape to
tell the story. I’m a big fan of promenade theatre and the four areas chosen as scenic backdrops to
the action of the play were absolutely gorgeous (and beautifully lit by Andrew Hollet). My one
caveat would have to be the amount of time it took the audience to move from one location to
another which slightly interfered with the pacing of the piece. It also became rather dangerously
dark at times. Having said that, l absolutely applaud the company for taking risks both with the
structure of the play and the staging - this is their third production in this space and so l guess that
they would be aware of these shortcomings before setting out on this adventure.
l have one other slight niggle. Given the experimental approach both to the play and its
staging l thought that the traditional costumes were a slight cop-out. Don’t get me wrong, the
costumes were absolutely beautiful (how they’re going to keep all those white tights clean over the
course of the week fascinates me!). It’s simply that there was another potential avenue for a
contemporary Shakespeare which wasn’t taken. Hair, make-up and all attendant gloss was of a
professional standard.
By that token, it was slightly difficult to reconcile Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah being sung in
doublet and hose. But, having said, l loved the music, and so, congratulations to Steve Jenner for
all the music (and can we also sneak in an acting credit?).
OK - acting. One word - terrific! The entire company spoke with a degree of ownership
unusual in a predominantly young community cast. If I have to single out particular performances, l
would have to wax lyrical about the two young women playing Viola and Olivia, both of whom
spoke with confidence, understanding and empathy for other characters. In this old hack’s humble
experience (once again) this can often be the case that when you have such good actors in the
company, their skills seem to transfer to the entire cast. And so, l could go on about other sterling
performances but, in the sake of brevity, let’s just say you were all excellent. And, of course, these
actors had obviously been well tutored and directed in performance. Once again, l just have one
slight niggle here - occasionally l found the delivery of the verse just a tad slow. Maybe l know the
play too well? OK - my bad!
So, congratulations to the Wild Will Theatre Company. I look forward to seeing Jerusalem
next week.
Richard Haighton

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