TWELFTH NIGHT. To 17 February.

Northampton

TWELFTH NIGHT
by William Shakespeare

Royal Theatre To 17 February 2007
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat 3, 8, 10, 15 Feb 2.30pm
Audio-described 6 Feb
BSL Signed 7 Feb
Post-show discussion 7 Feb
Runs 3hr One interval

TICKETS: 01604 624811
www.royalandderngate.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 30 January

And a long, dark, soulless Night it is.
No sooner has Northampton’s Royal reopened than it could face closure from a massive cut in council funding. They don’t mind theatre-buildings, but can do without plays in them, it seems.

Alas, we can do without Shakespeare productions like this one. It shows no comprehension of how to perform Shakespeare. Several performances are so dire it’s a relief when dull competence comes along.

It’s unfair to blame individual cast members, be it Natalie Walter’s Olivia with the girlish voice and bent thorax that went out of Shakespeare in the 1970s, Andrew Turner’s comic but uni-dimensional Sir Andrew, Stuart Fox’s effortfully unfunny Malvolio or Lucy Speed’s bright but unpurposeful Maria.

And those are the tolerable ones. Speed’s performance points to the trouble: Laurie Sansom’s direction. She speaks well, but is forever forcing meaning by facial mugging, something endemic to the production. Lines are mauled, mangled, subjected to fussy, unnatural phrasing and pauses, as faces try to do the work. It’s all external; there’s no heart. Only Stephen Critchlow’s Sir Toby makes the script uncluttered and natural-seeming, while Greg Barnett’s Antonio speaks with clarity and sense.

And there's is a painful mishmash of short-terms gags. Maria empties a chamber-pot over Sir Toby’s head during the night-time revels. Yet she’s supposed to love him. And he’s her social superior. And nowhere else does the production suggest such behaviour might be part of the relationship between them.

It’s a pity, for the opening funeral procession, with Olivia stumbling in grief and the twin visitors seen parting behind them, suggests ideas of loss and grief will inform the evening. Loz Kaye’s music is attractive and apt. There are a few perceptive moments: Sebastian and Antonio practise sword-fighting before encountering Toby and Andrew, preparing for the surprise Sebastian inflicts on them. Sir Andrew suddenly looks blissful in his injured state when Olivia pays attention to him for the first time as she tends his wound. Malvolio snaps his revenge threat just after the lovers had started relaxing, thinking he’d gone. But such moments (all relating to action rather than speaking the speech) are far too rare.

Orsino: Paul Fox
Curio/Fabian: Kenon Mann
Valentine/Antonio: Greg Barnett
Viola: Rebecca Grant
Sea Captain/Priest: George Franco
Sir Toby Belch: Stephen Critchlow
Maria: Lucy Speed
Sir Andrew Aguecheek: Andrew Turner
Feste: Anthony Ofoegbu
Olivia: Natalie Walter
Malvolio: Stuart Fox
Sebastian: Rachid Sabitri1
1st Officer: James Ducker
2nd Officer: David Heathcote

Director: Laurie Sansom
Designer: Simon Rorstrand
Lighting: Natasha Chivers
Composer/Musical Director: Loz Kaye
Fight director: Richard Ryan
Assistant director: Mike Hayhurst

2007-02-01 09:11:59