TWELFTH NIGHT. To 17 June.
Oxford/London
TWELFTH NIGHT
by William Shakespeare
Oxford Playhouse To 10 June
Sat 2.30pm & 7.30pm
then Barbican Theatre London 13-17 June 2006
Tue 7pm Wed-Sat 7.15pm Mat Sat 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
TICKETS: 01865 305305
www.oxfordplayhouse.com (Oxford)
0845 120 7500
www.barbican.org.uk (reduced booking fee online) (London)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 9 June
Freshly-thought production mixes laughs and seriousness.
As the cast list shows, this Cheek by Jowl production is all-male and all-Russian. It’s Shakespeare organised by an International Chekhov Festival. And it bears distinctly the mark of director Declan Donnellan and fellow C by J boss, designer Nick Ormerod.
There’s a slight disorientation, whether from the all-male cast, the Russian language or the supertitles that help glimpse rather than fully stating, familiar Shakespearean lines. But more from Donnellan’s direction. Familiar moments are re-ordered, the famous “food of love” opening preceded by the cast, as yet uncharacterised, calling for “My father”. Actors playing Viola and Olivia are each dressed in an improvised skirt before leaving to establish their new character in full dress. Sense of identity becomes key, along with the feel of life as a dream.
Dream can be nightmare, nowhere more than for Dmitry Shcherbina’s tall and dignified Malvolio. He doesn’t leap to chuck Feste out at Olivia’s word, while later Maria has to keep pushing the fake love-letter closer to him. Once he sees it, he’s taken into a parallel, obsessive world of dreams. By the scene’s end, the conspirators can leave their hiding places and talk openly without him noticing (Maria’s made one of them, replacing Fabian) and the scene’s final moments are cut, ending with Malvolio bent low in tears, the efficient functionary reduced to emotional desperation.
So it fits that Malvolio later frees himself from prison, escaping the bounds of desire, before finally returning to final upright dignity and formal dress, serving drinks to the happy crowd. His revenge threat, spoken away from the others, becomes the last line, spoken with sudden intensity, counterpointing the happy party so energetically it’s possible to imagine their drinks all poisoned.
Yet there’s no doubting the genuine delight with which Viola and her brother are reunited, in a passionately fierce hug as if finding their other selves. Other fresh-thought aspects include an elderly, rouged and elegant Feste, worry at offending Olivia underlying his surface assurance. This is, if not the most openly joyous of productions, one with a nervy coherence and sympathy with human desires and suffering.
Orsino: Vladimir Vdovichenkov
Sebastian: Sergey Mukhin
Antonio: Mikhail Zhigalov
Sea-captain: Vsevolod Boldin
Valentine: Yury Makeev
Curio: Mikhail Dementiev
Sir Toby Belch: Alexander Feklistov
Sir Andrew Aguecheek: Dmitry Diuzhev
Malvolio: Dmitry Shcherbina
Feste: Evgeny Pisarev/Igor Yasulovich
Olivia: Alexey Dadonov
Viola: Andrey Kuzichev
Maria: Ilia Ilyin
Director: Declan Donnellan
Designer: Nick Ormerod
Lighting: Judith Greenwood
Music: Vladimir Pankov/Alexander Gusev
Choreographer/Movement consultant: Jane Gibson
Movement director: Albert Alberts
Movement coach: Alexandra Konnikova
Assistant director: Evgeny Pisarev
2006-06-10 13:18:42