Twelfth Night @ Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
I was so thrilled to be going to Stratford, Shakespeare and RSC heartland. Loved the production, performances, staging and audience interaction of the production, seen close to the actual date of the play! Less enamoured about the venue’s location — more of which later.
Frost! Frozen River Avon! Installations! A massive ‘O’ of a stage — which makes you go ‘OH!’ and projecting walks off the main stage, on which the cast go in and out of the audience. Somehow a massive organ and organist hidden behind a backdrop. Plus mime! (and lightbulb gags).
Loved seeing Samuel West, Freema Agyeman and Bally Gill all on stage — at the same time! Joplin Sibtain played a very naughty Sir Toby Belch indeed, channeling his inner Lord Flashheart. As Malvolio, Samuel West really made you pity the man, who is (when it comes down to it) being tortured for doing the right thing and protecting his mistress’s interests and property rather than just being an early Scrooge protype and popper on parties. Even though his antagonists play on his deluded pride. Freema Agyeman played a terrifically imperious, stately and amusing Olivia, who was delighted to find that she had twins in the family — perhaps too much! Also her facial expressions when encountering Malvolio in his yellow stockinged glory were something to behold (and trying to keep it together in his odd behaviour). The tension at the end when she’d married Sebastian and was encountering hostility from Cesario was impressive — a mixture of horror, betrayal, bafflement, hurt and disgust.
More was made of the twins here — who continued to confuse, even when the reveal had been made. Sebastian (Rhys Rusbatch) and Viola (Gywneth Keyworth) made a delightful and believable pairing — Sebastian appearing charmingly dishevelled and amazed as Olivia finally gets her man — and Viola/Cesario increasingly exasperated in carrying out her master’s will znd suit to Olivia. Bally Gill’s Orsino (very used to ruling and being obeyed) was equally as imperious as Olivia — and we got some great clashes of wills and personality between the two. At the same time, he had a moment of humour when he produced a gift wrapped portable organ for Olivia — only to clock the vast one in the background!
The patience on a monument speech had gone, even though there were monument pedestals on stage crying out to be used. However, what we gained was a Christmas song by Matt Maltese and a lot of music and merriment. Sir Andrew Aguecheek worked as a foolish, gullible capering character (Demetri Goritsas). Best of all was Feste (Michael Grady-Hall) in extraordinary bumble-bee frou-frou, who pulled the switch to turn the lights on and off, plunging the audience into darkness; had fun triggering music from the floor and got the audience involved in a wild game of catch and cheering at the end of the interval. Some wonderful aerial work too! Feste further had a great encounter with Olivia in their stand-off about who was the fool — the great strength of this drama was that the words and the scenes really had meaning, sense, everything really worked rather than being a creaky ancient play as it can sometimes be. For example, they made the forced duel work, and then when Sebastian turned up to fight back….
Maria (Danielle Henry) was sharp and sly in her revenge on Malvolio and sharply intelligent. Less flirting with Sir Toby here until the end — when she and he were dispatched out of the estate as a pair with their suitcases. Yet still, we really feel the cruelty against Malvolio, personally and unreasonably.
The whole court worked charmingly — despite a stark, dark minimalist setting, The introduction of a sleepy and comic organist was a delight, as was some of the cast’s painting and repair of the organ! Another strength was Antonio (Norman Bowman) in his relish at being set free, and in his fighting the police’s capturing of him. Utilising the walkways, the action kept going all the time. Valentine (David Whitworth) moved in charming and dignified fashion and danced divinely. I loved here how we got a real sense of Olivia and Orsino’s court — Olivia maybe needed to have a word with her women! I wish the priest (Emily Benjamin) hadn’t channeled her inner Vicar of Dibley (it was a walking cliche), but I did like the mug!
No jig at the end — I felt denied! But instead some mime as Feste pushed the cast and the giant organ back, back, back! In a spotlight, his ending speech was incredibly moving.
Visiting Stratford-upon-Avon was more fraught. I loved the journey up — everything is frosty and frozen! But the area didn’t feel safe to walk around, even a short walk to the theatre, as it seems to have been encircled by roads, as a pedestrian it can be alarming to work out where to go (signs suddenly disappear and the direction is uncertain at points), and the streets were (for good or ill) eerily quiet. Also beware the ice! The charmingly rusticated station dumps you into a retail park — which (like Bury St Edmunds) is a strange way to present Shakespeare’s home to everyone. I found the expectation was that you’d drive — everywhere — so directional signage to the theatre and back was vague and unclear, I had to rely on kind staff giving me directions to get back safely again for there didn’t seem to be any maps to hand and the street map only had the immediate area on it. For such a major venue there wasn’t a taxi rank outside, it seemed, just a pick up-drop off point and relied on pre-booking. Did enjoy seeing frozen canals and dramatically frozen over River Avon, but it was hard to get a sense of the place and to navigate it — it was very easy to get lost. Maybe it looks better by day! (and make space for the unexpected rush into Tesco Express of an evening!) Christmas lights on the main street look great and I think I walked past Shakespeare’s birthday in my lostness, which was exciting. But didn’t enjoy being frustratingly lost for a time!
Overall, I think I expected more of a Chichester or Cambridge vibe. Did enjoy the theatre once I got there — the scale of it is impressive and the ensemble acting and speaking in Prasanna Puwanarajah’s production was terrific.
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