Twelfth Night

‘Twelfth Night’ an all time favourite comedy by William Shakespeare, is wonderfully directed by Roger Hodgman. Presented by Black Swan State Theatre Company at the Playhouse Theatre, 3 Pier Street, Perth. The performances commence nightly at 7.30 until 8^th August.

    Just off the coast of Illyria, a boat sinks and young Viola (Amanda Woodhams) is washed ashore. In order to get work with the Duke Orsino (Kenneth Ransom), Viola disguises herself as a man and calls herself Cesario. Cesario’s first task is to flirt with the beautiful Olivia (Kirsty Hillhouse) on the Duke’s behalf!

    However the insipid, but enthusiastic, Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Ingle Knight) is desperate for Olivia’s love and so calls upon her uncle, Sir Toby Belch (Luke Hewitt) and his friend Fabian (Stuart Halusz) to assist him in his wooing. To complicate things even further, Olivia’s servant, Malvolio (Geoff Kelso) also fancies her.

    Viola believes that her twin brother Sebastian (Will O'Mahony) was drowned when the ship wrecked, but after a while he appears on the scene with his rescuer, Antonio (Kelton Pell). With both Viola and Sebastian being dressed in sailors’ outfits, everyone confuses the two.

     Unfortunately ‘cougar’ Olivia falls madly in love with Cesario – let us see you get out of that one Viola!

Steve Turner was Feste the Fool, in a delivery similar to Paul Livingston’s erudite Flacco, proved that he was far from stupid. Turner broke new ground by having to sing several short pieces in genres from Blues to Folk. Ash Gibson Greig’s music was at his its best.

There was great support from the supporting cast of Renee Hale, Brendan Hanson, Samantha Murray and Kazimir Sas who is proving to be a promising talent. How often are the minor parts forgotten or ignored by the director? Here they too became an important part of the storyline.

As an enthusiastic Melz has said, this really is an excellent contemporary version of an old favourite.  The dialogue is still Elizabethan, but the delivery very modern. With plays such as ‘The Importance of being Ernest’ we find ourselves saying ‘Oh not again’, ‘seen it a hundred times!’ well this production brings a brand new light and approach to ‘Twelfth Night’. With such a solid and much awarded cast of talent, I expected a lot and was still amazed at the performances. Think of the best version of ‘Twelfth Night’ that you have ever seen and this presentation doubles the enjoyment.

The laughs came every few seconds. The double entendres and metaphors that may have been missed in the past were clearly delivered and played to the full in this show. I had never realised how near to an R-rating the script is, thankfully a couple of dubious lines were not elucidated e.g. the lips and the whistle.

What an amazing director Roger Hodgman is, the lateral thinking, the cracking pace and the fun he creates is magnificent.

My immediate reaction on seeing the cross-cambered stage, with the floor sloping gently in various directions was why go to the bother and expense? But Christina Smith’s idea really did make for more excitement to the movement and flow of the various scenes taking place in the same area. The audience finds themselves in a cave looking out to sea, with the entire action taking place in the cave. The lighting (Jon Buswell) hues, patterns and precise illumination levels were spot-on.

Alicia Clements’ costumes were the best I have seen this year, some added to the fun, other gave beauty, each and every one giving a clear character portrayal of their wearers.

As Melz says, you don’t have to know or like Shakespeare to enjoy this. Was Melz over enthusiastic about this play? Probably not, thanks to a fabulous cast it really is hilarious.

Gordon the Optom