TWELFTH NIGHT. To 17 February.
London.
TWELFTH NIGHT
by William Shakespeare.
Old Vic Theatre In rep to 17 February 2007.
Mon-Sat 18-23; 27; 31 Jan, 1-2, 5-6; 10, 14-17 Feb 7.30pm Mat 24 Jan, 3, 7, Feb 2.30pm.
BSL Signed 14 Feb.
Runs 3hr One interval.
TICKETS: 0870 060 6628 (£2.50 transaction fee).
www.oldvictheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 January.
Gender-bending to no end.
Starting out, with companion production The Taming of the Shrew, at Newbury’s Watermill Theatre (which effectively gave birth to Edward Hall’s all-male Shakespeare company Propeller) this shows a world looking forward to January gloom rather than remembering Christmas festivities. It’s not a likely way for Shakespeare to have cheered Elizabeth I’s winter celebrations. But every Dream has its nightmare, every festivity its sobering up.
Certainly the final song is a melancholy little number and Hall joins the directors who point up that the happy end leaves conned suitor Andrew Aguecheek and the source of professional merriment, jester Feste, excluded. It seems poetic injustice as Simon Scardifield’s Andrew and Jack Tarlton’s Feste are the strongest performances in a mixed ensemble.
Scardifield’s gleamingly blonde hair suggests the ridiculous, but he finds sympathy for the character, someone with just enough sense to realise he’s not very bright and want to do something about it. Tarlton, as in the Shrew, flattens intonations and uses downbeat-sounding inflections judiciously to suggest the professional going through his comedian’s patter, rising routinely to any occasion, after years of practice. He appreciates Maria’s heard-it-before answers to his early patter, but shows in his quoting Malvolio’s criticisms of him at the end that he’s held a serious grudge against the Steward.
The production chiefly falters in Propeller’s most immediate distinction: the all-male casting. Tam Williams suggests the vulnerability in Viola’s position and the strength of her spirit, but there’s no pretending the impersonation begins to match the expressive range of many female performers in this great role.
Dugald Bruce-Lockhart seems confined less finer than this actor can be as Olivia, turning in a camp drag-act that has fun posing as a statue for the letter-reading scene. When Malvolio takes the letter from this supposed statuary it adds a pun to the epistle being in “my lady’s hand”(writing) and leaves 2 fingers insultingly erect, but there’s no sense of the fine lady.
And Chris Myles’ Maria is a non-entity. Hall seems stuck with a company concept that does not contribute to any interpretation, leaving the production as shipwrecked as Viola herself.
Feste: Tony Bell.
Orsino: Jack Tarlton.
Curio/Priest: Jon Trenchard.
Viola: Tam Williams.
Sebastian: Joe Flynn.
Ship Captain: Dominic Tighe.
Olivia: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart.
Malvolio: Bob Barrett.
Sir Toby Belch: Jason Baughan.
Maria: Chris Myles.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek: Simon Scardifield.
Antonio: Alasdair Craig.
Ensemble: Tom McDonald.
Director: Edward Hall.
Designer: Michael Pavelka.
Lighting: Ben Ormerod.
Music: Propeller.
Associate director: Tom Daley.
2007-01-25 12:06:29