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Viola and Sebastian are twins who become seperated when their ship is lost at sea. Viola is washed up ashore in a strange land, believing her brother to have drowned. She decides to disguise herself as a boy, Cesario, in order to enter the service of Duke Orsino. In the guise of Cesario, Viola quickly rises in the Dukes favour and she in turn soon falls in love with the Duke.
The Duke however, is enamoured of the Lady Olivia but she is in mourning for her brother and will not entertain his suit. Sir Andrew Aguecheek, the drinking partner of Olivia's uncle Sir Toby Belch, is Orsino's rival in his pursuit of Olivia. Orsino sends his trusted servant Cesario (Viola) to plead with Olivia on his behalf. Cesario (Viola) obeys his (her) lord but is dumbfounded when Olivia makes it clear that her amourous interests are turning towards him (her) instead. And so a love triangle has developed; Orsino loves Olivia, Olivia loves Cesario (Viola), and Viola loves Orsino.
When Viola's brother Sebastian turns up alive, unknown at first to Viola, the scene is set for a comedy of mistaken identity and romantic entanglements. Add to this a side-plot of Olivia's maid plotting revenge against the oily and unctious steward Malvolio, and the comical antics of Sir Andrew, Sir Toby and the clown Feste, this is Shakespeare's most outgoing and funniest comedy.
So soon after seeing this same play performed by a different company at the West Yorkshire Playhouse one could not help but make comparisons, and this version it must be said was considerably the more polished of the two. The direction was better so that the pace of the action ran more smoothly. The timing and delivery of the comic elements was also greatly improved to make this a much funnier production, raising many more laughs from the audience than had been occasioned by the Playhouse version.
The action is translated to the modern day, so that when the shipwreck survivors are washed ashore they are at first attended by paramedics. The set was a simple yet impressive all purpose affair where the columns at the sides and back of the stage could be made to flatten out to form continuous walls. The costumes, likewise were simple and modern, mainly in black. As Cesario, Viola wore an austere but fashionable man's black suit and white shirt and certainly looked very boyish with her shortly cropped hair.
Sadly the affair was played to a theatre probably less than a third full, Shakespeare is perhaps a step too far for many modern theatregoers.
Matthew Kelly (presenter of 'Stars in Their Eyes') was certainly the star of the show and seemed to enjoy camping it up as the unctious Malvolio. With his cheesy grin and twitchy mannerisms he was every inch the vain and pompous steward, wrapped up in dreams of self-importance. Honeysuckle Weeks (Sam from 'Foyles War') was a wry and enchanting Viola, but one that was perhaps a little too confident in her upturned world. To again raise comparison with the Playhouse production, she lacked the frailty and, when her world began turning cartwheels around her, sense of bafflement that had made Hattie Morahan's Viola so touching and compelling. Rebecca Egan meanwhile, was no less than superb as Olivia. Delivering her lines in husky dulcet tones she brought a highly sensual element to the part of the regal beauty. Bob Cryer's Orsino was a man whose person was the very emanation of love as a romantic ideal, obsessed more with the notion of loving than the actuality of being in love. Christopher Benjamin as Sir Toby Belch, Roger Barclay as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Hilton McRae as Feste provided most of the humour, sparking off each other with perfect timing. Christopher Harper as Sebastian and Anita Booth as Maria provided fine support.
A talented cast in a splendidly staged production of Shakespeare's immortal work. Genuinely funny, touchingly romantic. If you Shakespeare's work tedious or too hard to follow, here is a production to make you think again.