Twelfth Night

‘Twelfth Night’ is possibly William Shakespeare’s most popular romantic, cross-dressing comedy. This lively and very well produced play gives a different and fresh approach to this old favourite. It can be seen at the Melville Theatre, on the corner of Stock Road and Canning Highway, Palmyra on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8.00 pm until Saturday 6^th July. On Sunday 30^th it is curtain up for a matinee at 2.00 pm.

Melville Theatre is proud to support ‘Friends of Autism’, and so the proceeds from the show will help fund their activities.

The set is of a courtyard, surrounded by the sandstone walls of a wealthy home (good artwork from Dawn Murray, Vanessa Jensen and Barbara Lovell). There is a bench and a privet box hedge. The director has also used the two sides of the stage apron for minor scenes.

The play opens with the fun music of ‘Horrible Tudor Histories’ setting the scene for what is a much lighter version of ‘Twelfth Night’ than usual, in fact in places it comes close to being a pantomime.

         A beautiful teenage girl, Viola (Katie Raine), has been washed ashore after the ship she was travelling on broke up in a storm. With the help of the captain (David Johnson) she staggers up the beach, only find that her twin brother, Sebastian (Matthew Randall) has probably perished. Viola and the captain are found by a couple of servants, Valentino (Sarah Courtis) and Curio (Stephen Platt) from the local Duke’s castle. 

        In order to feel safe, Viola dresses as a man and calls herself Cesario. She finds a job with a Duke, Orsino (Jason Dohle). Orsino has fallen in love with Olivia (Ellin Sears), but because her parents have just died she has decided to defer marriage for seven years. Orsino asks Cesario to help him soften Olivia’s heart. However, it backfires and Olivia, thinking Viola is a man, falls for Cesario instead. However, Viola has fallen for her boss, the Duke Orsino.

        After a meeting in the local tavern with Olivia’s uncle, Sir Toby Belch (Peter Nettleton) and Sir Andrew Aguecheeck (Rachael Maher), servants Maria (Therese Cruise) and Fabian (Cary Hudson) decides to play a joke on, Olivia’s arrogant and foppish manservant, Malvolio (Lee Sheppard) by writing him a love letter, supposedly from Olivia. The fool, Feste (Bethsaida Tapsell) revels in such a prank, giving a real sparkle to the moment. 

        Will anyone get married in the end?

Director Jeffrey Watkins and his assistant director, Marcelle Weber, have bravely tackled this old favourite with courage and adventure, and I feel that it came off. The purists and traditionalists may be horrified at this approach, but the fun was certainly there.

The choreography and body language was well above average, however, in choosing the best actors for the part, Jeff has chosen a few actresses to play the male parts. This isn’t normally a problem, but when one character in the play is a girl dressed as a man, some confusion was noted at the interval with some of the patrons.

In all of Shakespeare’s plays there are passages with key story elements, and these need to be enunciated perfectly and at a speed that allows the audience to absorb all the salient points. Sadly three or four of the actors tended to gabble a little, and whether it was the higher key of the actresses’ voices or the hard surfaces of the set, the sound became confused.

This was Kate Raine’s first part in a community theatre play and she was excellent. Ellin Sears, who is a wonderful dancer, has now proven herself as a very capable actress. The cast skills go right through to Lee Sheppard, a professional actor, who gave great depth to the camp Malvolio.

The lighting by Lars Jensen was, as always, very good, however, one of the floods has rotated and now points at the proscenium arch leaving a dark spot for the actors in the centre front of the stage. Jacinta Radbourn has produced good crisp sound, with the clock chimes and bird sounds being most realistic.

Young teenagers would probably enjoy this light-hearted version of the play, but please don’t bring kids of under seven - someone did last night, allowing them to float along the rows of seating.

My initial feeling about seeing ‘Twelfth Night’ for the ‘n^th’ time was not one of enthusiasm, but this was good fun, with strong chemistry between the cast members. Most enjoyable, right up to the closing song.