Twelfth Night

Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night,’ written between 1601 and 1602,  is a comedy about a cross-dressing, ship-wreck surviving, poetry loving girl who finds herself at the centre of a complicated love-triangle. There is also a sub-plot involving forged love-letters in an elaborate prank. The play features some famous quotes including the opening line “If music be the food of love, play on.”

The curtains opened on a simple set, which worked well in minimising transition between scenes, which in turn kept the pace going. With such a small working stage area, good use was made of part of the auditorium for entrances and exits. Technically, backstage work was handled well, as was lighting. Costumes looked excellent and colourful against the black curtains.

On the whole principals delivered with a confident approach to character portrayals and with such a complicated linguistic style, the ability to communicate with the audience is so important. Diction, projection and clarity of speech was mostly achieved but occasionally, diction was lost amid the action.

There were some strong performances from the leading characters notably David Clark as Malvolio, Andy Noakes as Sir Toby Belch, Margaret Bown as Maria and Elizabeth Hughesdon as Viola. We were also treated to some fine singing from Mark Nurdin as Feste. The rest of the cast, although not named individually were equally up to the challenge and the quality of acting was excellent throughout. Congratulations should go to all involved, especially Director Martin Pickering who can be justly proud of the way he brought Shakespeare to Hartley for the first time.

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