Twelfth Night

This was a very strong cast, who worked brilliantly together to convey the story, and it was obvious that they all understood their characters which they established as soon as they entered the stage. There were some superb characterisations and physicality from the cast, and they eked out all of the wonderful comedy of Shakespeare’s writing. The pace, feeling and emotion throughout the play was tight and the play romped along apace.  Shakespeare is not easy, but this cast all seemed very comfortable with the words and their delivery and phrasing of the prose and comedy was very well done. The directors used the open-air acting area well, bordering it with stone arches which creating entrances for the cast to come through stage right and an area for the musician’s stage left. They brought out all the humour of the play without overexaggerating it and gave us a very funny drunken scene and some hilarity as Sir Tony, Sir Andrew and Fabienne were eavesdropping on Malvolio. The changes of location were indicated by members of the cast carrying boards across the stage. Each did this with aplomb and some funny winks, blown kisses and amusing facial expressions.

The MD had composed ‘Tudor-style’ music for the production, which was played as the audience entered, as underscore for some of the scenes as well as to accompany the dances. It is always nice to have live music for Shakespeare as it makes the play feel more authentic for the era.

Set in the late Elizabethan period, the costumes were of the era and transported us back to the 16th Century. The colour palate, which was predominately burgundy, brown, and rust for the noble men and women and their staff allowed for an obvious contrast with Olivia and Malvolio’s black mourning clothes and for Feste’s yellow attire. It was very effective having Viola and Sebastian in identical costumes and their long hair tied back and height made the likeness even more impactful.

This was a tremendous production which I enjoyed immensely.

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