TWELFTH NIGHT till 22 October

Leeds

TWELFTH NIGHT
by William Shakespeare

West Yorkshire Playhouse (Quarry) To 22 October 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 20 Oct 1.30pm 22 Oct 2pm
Audio-described 21 Oct
Runs 3hr 10min One interval

TICKETS: 0113 213 7700
www.wyp.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 October

Fine for first-timers or aficionados.
West Yorkshire Playhouse artistic director Ian Brown has aimed his production at 10+, not (just) in the enforced encampments of school parties, but in groups with adult relatives, without lessening its depth. The programme colourfully explains story and characters, while designer Colin Richmond’s single-location set, a wood-floored bandstand on an isolated beach, is flexible if it gives little away about different locations.

Above, 2 angled circles of fancy lights suggest an astrolabe, giving a cosmic sense, and the feel of Illyria as a rundown, end-of-season society. Sir Toby Belch knows his way around, stamping his foot to bring the lights on – a knack visiting fop Sir Andrew (John Lighbody, impressively vacuous) hasn’t acquired. But a society fitted to Colin Mace’s Toby would be rotten. Drunk, frequently swigging from his hip-flask, he’s extremely unpleasant. Rejecting Aguecheek, he turns on the hapless knight with a grimacing parody of his former hearty smile, quietly yet intensively running him down. It’s the malice of someone working-out his sense of self-worthlessness as Olivia (the real power in the family) grows more impatient with him.

She does so because Viola’s arrival, in boyish disguise as Cesario, has awakened her bereaved feelings. Olivia transforms from black to stylishly-cut clothing, from lassitude to the energy lying underneath her bereft former state in Susie Trayling’s performance. It contrasts her yearning lover Orsino’s imprisonment in his feelings – his servant Valentine interrupts his opening ruminations to suggest something active like hunting, only to have it turned to a pun by Orsino’s paralysed obsession.

Hattie Morahan’s Viola soon establishes herself, in male guise, as brightly confident, disabled only by desire. Asked by Orsino what happened to the sister Cesario’s invented, Morahan doubles up, struggling not to reveal her own love for him.

There are some silly details: Malvolio’s slicked hair (Antony Byrne does a good job under it, kneeling to knight himself as he enters for the letter-scene), Orsino’s sprucing himself up to meet Olivia (though it emphasises this is their first meeting). But Brown offers a fine, funny and – aided by Chris Davey’s lighting, with its darkness at Orsino’s, and storms framing the action – reflective production.

Orsino: Charles Abomeli
Valentine/1st Officer: Simon Harrison
Viola: Hattie Morahan
Captain/Fabian: Guy Burgess
Sir Toby Belch: Colin Mace
Maria: Mia Soteriou
Sir Andrew Aguecheek: John Lightbody
Feste: John Elkington
Olivia: Susie Trayling
Malvolio: Antony Byrne
Antonio: Daniel Crowder
Sebastian: Daniel Crossley
2nd Officer/Priest: Damian Dawtry

Director: Ian Brown
Designer: Colin Richmond
Lighting: Chris Davey
Sound: Mic Pool
Composer: Richard Taylor
Voice director: Susan Stern
Fight director: Terry King
Assistant director: Alan Lane

2005-10-19 15:44:49