TWELFTH NIGHT

Barbican

★★★★

“There are many moments of light and silliness in this production”

When Feste – the fool attached to Olivia’s household – hangs upside down from the rafters, crooning as though in an after-hours jazz club; while Orsino is draped across a grand piano ten feet below him, you know you’re in for a “Twelfth Night” with a difference. Feste is less the sword of Damocles, but more Cupid’s arrow, if only he wouldn’t spend so much time clowning around. Played by Michael Grady-Hall, he weaves himself in and out of each of the play’s storylines as though he’s at the circus. Even during the interval, he plays Catch with the audience.

Yet he stops short of making this the ‘Feste Show’. Directed by Prasanna Puwanarajah, this eccentrically stylised production reveals how strong an ensemble piece it is. While Feste feels the need to fix everyone’s problems, they all seem to be getting on with it fine anyway. And relishing the opportunity. The sense of mourning and melancholy that introduces the story is reliant on the music more than the characters. Whether it is composer Matt Maltese’s jazzy piano accompaniments or the imposing pipe organ that periodically dominates James Cotterill’s outlandish sets, the tunes and refrains are what trigger the emotions. Ragtime accompanies the boisterous, boozy, behind-the-scenes shenanigans of Sir Toby and company. The same melody, slowed down for the organ, reflects the themes of lost and confused love that the protagonists are grappling with.

Daniel Monks’ Orsino is a velvet-clad playboy. A bachelor who prefers others to do his lustful bidding for him. Continually rejected by Olivia, his heart’s desire, he conveys a parallel growing affection for Cesario, his newly acquired manservant (the shipwrecked Viola in disguise). The same homoeroticism is more than hinted at between Olivia and Cesario/Viola. Gwyneth Keyworth embraces Olivia’s contradictions: resilient and practical yet vulnerable and easily infatuated. Continually dropping hints that he/she isn’t who she really is, Olivia pursues him/her anyway, perhaps not really caring too much about the gender. Freema Agyeman is a striking and versatile Olivia. Forcefully charismatic and sultry, and also playfully swinging between offended gravitas and excited sensuality.

Samuel West shines as Malvolio, austere one moment until duped into shaking his tail feathers for Olivia. Hilarious in his stockings, garters and broad smile. Yet when the game is up, his final exit is ultimately moving. Joplin Sibtain’s Sir Toby Belch is like an untrained hound while Danielle Henry’s Maria is his handler. As Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Demetri Goritsas is an all-shook-up, Americanised mix of Stan Laurel and Hugh Laurie.

Puwanarajah’s playful approach often detracts from the true emotion, but our attention never wanders and, among the mix of styles, small details are mischievously slipped in – like “Chekhov’s tramp”. A wandering vagrant or police officer may cross the stage for no apparent reason. A painter and decorator will be seen working away on nobody-knows-what. There are many moments of light and silliness in this production. It is a play that sets out amid grief, mourning and tragedy on its stylish journey towards celebration and unity, with some unexpected steps on the way. Occasional ad-libbing, along with scripted anachronisms, reference the festive season. We leave the theatre with a warm spring in our step. A joyous and heart-tugging production.

TWELFTH NIGHT

Barbican

Reviewed on 16th December 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Helen Murray

TWELFTH NIGHT

★★★★

“Shrewdly directed by Michael Longhurst it is in equal measure clever, insightful, cruel and incisive”

“Teenage Dick” relocates ‘Richard III’ to an American High School, thus securing its place in the growing group of plays and films that have taken Shakespeare’s works four hundred years into the future, transposing the heroes and villains into modern teenagers. In writer Mike Lew’s assured hands, the translation works exceedingly well, though possibly this is mainly down to the excellent casting; particularly Daniel Monks who cuts a compelling figure as ‘Dick’ (Richard Gloucester). It is a multi-layered performance which not only matches the colourful cleverness of Lew’s script, but often surpasses it.

It centres on Richard’s plot to become president of his senior class at Roseland Junior High. Unpopular and disabled, he openly acknowledges his distorted physicality but then uses it to partly account for his crooked mind. We are on more tricky and dangerous ground than in Shakespeare’s day, but Monks depicts this internal conflict with intelligence and wit. Much has been made of Lew’s insistence that the lead characters be played by disabled actors, but one should be wary of the significance of this. Monks has hemiplegia but it doesn’t necessarily inform his depiction of the character’s darker side. There are more profound issues at stake that drag one down to the depths of villainy that his character descends into?

Monks’ performance is exceptional as he tackles the knotted weeds of self-loathing and raging ambition. Ruth Madeley, who is in a wheelchair, is also terrific as his best friend ‘Buck’ Buckingham, a kind of virtuous flipside to Dick’s burgeoning evil. With equally strong support from Siena Kelly as Anne Margaret, Susan Wokoma as Elizabeth York, Alice Hewkin as Clarissa Duke and Callum Adams as ‘Eddie’ the parallels with Shakespeare’s text apparent and quite ingeniously toyed with. The dialogue is sharp and cuttingly funny and works best in tongue-lashing mode when the actors fire their invective at each other rather than aim for sometimes long-winded introspection.

The central themes are occasionally drummed home. How much is Richard’s disability the cause of the ugliness of his actions? Shakespeare went further than this interest in just the physical, and to some extent Lew does too with his references to Machiavelli and the four pathways to power. Is it better to be loved or feared? But the mix doesn’t quite work here. Society’s fear of disability is different from Machiavelli’s conceived fear of an oppressor. It is a complex matter and one that needs more than a couple of hours of stage time to explore; particularly if you still want to entertain the audience.

If you play down the over analysis of the intentions, “Teenage Dick” is a quite stunning modern-day interpretation of Shakespeare’s villainous Richard of Gloucester. Shrewdly directed by Michael Longhurst it is in equal measure clever, insightful, cruel and incisive, with performances that do clearly entertain as much as they provoke debate.

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Marc Brenner

Tag Archives: Daniel Monks

TWELFTH NIGHT

★★★★

Barbican

TWELFTH NIGHT

Barbican

★★★★

“There are many moments of light and silliness in this production”