Twelfth Night

Jack Studio Theatre

Reviewed – 17th January 2020

★★★★

 

“It’s hard to figure out which is greater, the vibrant whole or the sum of its high-calibre parts”

 

Yard Players follow up a successful production of King Lear by whip-panning to the other end of Shakespeare’s spectrum, staging his seasonal romantic comedy at the same venue. The audience’s age range suggests Director (and Set Designer) James Eley’s plan to make the classics accessible to all is working, though Twelfth Night traditionally doesn’t need much help, with enough pranks, set pieces and comedy devices to please any post-Christmas crowd.

An intelligent and thorough production starts by shifting Illyria to Northern England, bringing the enjoyable impression that Viola (Jessica Kinsey, sole survivor from King Lear) is shipwrecked somewhere off the shore of Grimsby, then finds herself in the thrall of Duke Orsino (Duncan Drury) a lovestruck local aristocrat who previously had only his Alexa to talk to. In this world, Andrew Aguecheek (also Duncan Drury) is a gratingly braying twit in a flat cap with more money than brain cells and Maria (Heloise Spring) is a lairy troublemaker in tracksuit and hoop earrings.

New jokes are heaped upon 400-year-old ones with a mania that makes the arrival of Viola’s twin, Sebastian (James Viller), in an earnest scene with saviour, Antonio (Daniel Chrisostomou), a huge and welcome relief. This change of pace, style and mood is also a helpful signpost for the arrival of the main plot, a directorial ploy that is used again in the second half, when Malvolio (Daniel Chrisostomou again), as protagonist of the comedic sub-plot, is tormented. As the lighting changes, pinioning him in a red spotlight surrounded by darkness, his comedy becomes tragic and his sub-plot starts to usurp the main story. By the end, Malvolio’s ‘notorious wrong’ carries the greater dramatic weight, overshadowing the supposedly symmetrical love matches that are intended to set things right and send audience spirits soaring.

If it opts for a darker denouement, there is no lack of joy in the performance and creative arts. The substance Daniel Chrisostomou manages to invest in both Malvolio and Antonio gives the production its unusual gravitational force, but it is balanced on the comedy side of the scale by Pete Picton, who is as watchable a Sir Toby Belch as you could find at any ticket price, sowing confusion and enmity with the blamelessness only a drunkard can expect to pull off. James Eley’s nautically themed set is both impactful and detailed and Maeve McCarthy’s compositions are apt in their scene-setting, if rustically played, while Paul Lennox’s Lighting Design, as mentioned, is sparingly deployed but emphatic.

It’s hard to figure out which is greater, the vibrant whole or the sum of its high-calibre parts. Characters occasionally seem to be performing in different comedic genres alongside each other, but the ensemble playing is fast moving, the mischief and malevolence isn’t ignored, and some moments of empathy and pathos slip through at surprising moments.

 

Reviewed by Dominic Gettins

Photography by Yard Players

 

Twelfth Night

Jack Studio Theatre until 1st February

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Cinderella | ★★★ | December 2018

Gentleman Jack | ★★★★ | January 2019

Taro | ★★★½ | January 2019

As A Man Grows Younger | ★★★ | February 2019

Footfalls And Play | ★★★★★ | February 2019

King Lear | ★★★ | March 2019

The Silence Of Snow | ★★★ | March 2019

Queen Of The Mist | ★★★½ | April 2019

The Strange Case Of Jekyll & Hyde | ★★★★★ | September 2019

Moby Dick | ★★★★★ | October 2019

 

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