TWELFTH NIGHT. To 1 November.
London/Tour.
TWELFTH NIGHT
by William Shakespeare.
Tricycle Theatre 269 Kilburn High Road NW6 7JR To 27 September.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 4pm & Wed 10, Tues 16, Thurs 18, Tues 23, Thurs 25 Sept. 2pm.
then tour to 1 November 2008.
Runs 1hr 25min No interval.
TICKETS: 020 7328 -1000.
www.tricycle.co.uk (London performances)
Review: Carole Woddis 2 September.
Fun and agony as no trick is missed.
This production by Filter in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company already carries accolades from its outing in Edinburgh 2007 and the added imprimatur of Tom Morris (with his producing arm Schtanhaus) – a man who knows a thing or two when it comes to setting and spotting trends (see his association with Kneehigh). So, is this the future?
Michael Boyd, RSC artistic director, was on hand at the Tricycle to witness this London transfer of a production that started out as part of his mammoth Complete Works cycle in 2006. And what he will no doubt have witnessed, as did the rest of us, is a production that plays fast and loose, teases and bamboozles its audience and now and again catches the play’s agonies.
For make no mistake, Twelfth Night is an agonising play. Filter, using a company of actor-musicians and Poppy Miller playing both the cross-dressing Viola and her brother Sebastian, amazingly capture some of the pain of a play that asks all kinds of questions about sexuality. How could Olivia possibly be convinced that Viola/Cesario is a chap? Poppy Miller, despite pushing socks down her front, is irredeemably a woman. Belief is definitely suspended here.
But if Filter’s version, directed by RSC regular, Sean Holmes, jettisons conventional highs and low, it gains a dizzy kind of madness suited to the play’s turbulent, ambiguous themes and an audience involvement more usually associated with Shakespeare’s Globe.
In best Shakespearean spirit, Holmes’ production misses no trick in stealing from contemporary tropes, from mobiles to the BBC’s Radio 4 weather report. Somehow, just, Filter’s talented ensemble of three men and three women keep things on course.
Sometimes it’s touch and go. But you won’t find a more preening Malvolio than Ferdy Roberts’ bare-chested, yellow boxer-shorted factotum, a more debauched, worrying Sir Toby Belch than Oliver Dimsdale or laid-back, witty Maria than Gemma Saunders.
If consistency is lost, I nonetheless loved this production’s open-hearted freshness, its fresh emphases, and the riotous, unforgettable, rendering of `What is love’ with Jonathan Broadbent’s Aguecheek playing knockabout head-footie complete with fluffy woollen balls. It’s that kind of show. It’s a gas.
Orsino/Aguecheek: Jonathan Broadbent.
Toby Belch: Oliver Dimsdale.
Olivia: Syreeta Kumar.
Viola/Sebastian: Poppy Miller.
Malvolio: Ferdy Roberts.
Maria/Feste: Gemma Saunders.
Musician: Tom Haines.
Musician: Ross Hughes.
Musician: Alan Pagan.
Musician: Russell Marsh.
Director: Sean Holmes.
Sound: Tom Haines, Ross Hughes.
2008-09-04 02:17:26