Drama classes in school are funny things. Aside from generally acting strangely, some studying of plays has to be

The story concerns two twins, one a boy, one a girl, who are seperated in a storm at sea, and both washed up on the island of Illyria. The complication (for this being drama there has to be one) is that they are washed up seperately (and apparently three months apart, such is Shakespeare's liberty-taking with little things like time), and each believes their sibling has been killed. The girl, Viola, decides to dress up as a man to get a job as a servant of the ruler of the island, the duke Orsino. Orsino sends Viola (who calls herself Cesario) out to woo the lady Olivia, with whom he is madly in love. Olivia falls in love almost immediately with "Cesario". Cue lots of gender-jokes and confusion, which isn't resolved entirely satisfactorily at the end.

Through the first half, it was the sub-plot scenes featuring Roland Oliver as Sir Toby Belch - Lady Olivia's uncles - and John MacKay as Sir Andrew, his somewhat stupid friend, which proved the most amusing. Reading Shakespeare's words is all very well, but seeing them on stage is ultimately how to experience them, and this is proved spectacularly here. The lack of as many purely funny scenes in the second half meant that it wasn't quite as enjoyable, but it was still far from boring and had some lovely moments.

Especially impressive was the treatment of Malvolio, Olivia's steward, running her house for her, who is in love with her. Too often Malvolio is portrayed as either a fool or a pompous high-and-mighty who is only out to spoil Sir Toby and Sir Andrew's fun, and whilst this might be amusing enough at the start, it means that by the time Malvolio meets his come-uppance, the audience don't really care about him. Here, however, the character is treated as a human, and the motivation is a lot more clear. It doesn't stop us laughing at him, but by the end you feel a lot more sorry for him.

The costumes and props were Shakespearean in their time-period, and this added to it for me. Setting Shakespeare plays outside of their own time can make for some interesting readings, but seeing it closer to how it really would have been somehow makes it more convincing. It also means that one doesn't have to worry as much about what the director's possible interpretations might be, and can simply sit back and enjoy. In this respect as well, I thought it was superb.

As I have already said, Twelfth Night does not, on paper, have very much going for it when set against other plays. There are weaknesses which become especially apparent during the climax which give little real sense to a lot of it, but it is by seemingly paying little attention to these that this production excels. It is purely entertaining, very funny, and as such the faults are entirely the author's - however untouchable this author might be seen by some. In terms of what it has done for the play, this production is worthy of note. In terms of what I expected from any performance of Twelfth Night, after seeing the RSC production last November, it was so far ahead that perhaps the best way to have improved it would be to bring Shakespeare back to life and get him to re-write the most rubbish bits.

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Overall

4 1/2

Performance Time:
7.30pm
2:30pm on Thursday 21st Feb 2002

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