TWELFTH NIGHT To 2 May 2009.

Basingstoke

TWELFTH NIGHT
by William Shakespeare.

Haymarket Theatre To 2 May 2009.
Tue-Sat 7.30 pm Mat 30 April, 2 May 2 pm.
Runs 2hr 45min One interval.

TICKETS: 01256 844244.
www.anvilarts.org.uk
Review: Mark Courtice 22 April.

Stately Regency Shakespeare.
This seems an odd choice for Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal to bring to Basingstoke as part of the venues’ long-term relationship. This is not because of the play, but this production seems to be very much made for Bury's Regency Theatre Royal, not 20th century civic Basingstoke.

With Jane Austen costumes, and with the house-lights remaining on throughout, (you can imagine catching glimpses of the wonderful Bury auditorium) this is Shakespeare as Regency comedy. The lighting means the audience is treated as part of the cast (perhaps because there are only 8 professionals on stage) as the asides are made to them, often as questions or challenges that a Basingstoke audience is too polite to take up – audibly at least. Their hard work continues with the need to believe that Amy Humphreys’ petite and straight haired Viola could be mistaken for Bradley Clarkson’s beefy and curly Sebastian.

Shakespeare has a cast-list of 18 plus assorted lords, musicians and sailors; here 8 actors have to bustle about to keep all the parts on the go, and this means that there is no strength in depth in the casting of the contrasting households of Olivia and Orsino. Although neat, the set of gauzes with hanging green glass globes (3-D Regency wallpaper?) on an otherwise bare stage doesn’t help this impression of thinness, as specific locations lack detail.

There is some clever acting to compensate in Anna Hope’s Olivia who combines the solemn battiness of trying to remain in mourning for a brother for 7 years with the wilder battiness of instantly falling for the Count’s slightly built messenger. The music is safe in Eamonn O’Dwyer’s hands and pleasant voice; he copes well too with the slightly bi-polar combination of Feste with Fabian - clown and thug in one. Oliver Senton is entertaining in the affected and infinitely bendy Aguecheek, half of his double with the moody and pompous Orsino.

Director Abigail Anderson keeps things moving but does not always find the essential contrasts between the good-humoured and the manic on which the fun of Twelfth Night rests.

Orsino/Sir Andrew Oliver Senton.
Sir Toby Belch/Captain/Priest Tim Frances.
Feste Eamonn O’Dwyer.
Malvolio/Antonio Michael Onslow.
Sebastian/Officer/Curio Bradley Clarkson.
Olivia Anna Hope.
Viola Amy Humphreys.
Maria/Valentine Mary Ryder.

Director: Abigail Anderson.
Designer; Libby Watson.
Lighting: John Bramley.
Composer/Musical Director: Peter White.

2009-04-24 10:33:48