Twelfth Night at the Royal Shakespeare Company, April 2012
| April 14, 2012 | Posted by Emma French under culture, reviews |
In the year of the London 2012 Olympics, much stress is being placed on Britain’s multicultural heritage and international standing, and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) World Shakespeare Festival is in accordance with this trend. Throughout 2012 many international productions will be made in celebration of the world-renowned playwright, with the RSC contributing twelve new productions of their own. The first of this exploration of internationalism was What Country, Friends, Is This?, a trilogy of Shakespeare’s ‘Shipwrecked’ plays: A Comedy of Errors, The Tempest, and Twelfth Night – all performed by the same company, rehearsed simultaneously, and all using the same stage.
As the season’s title is Viola’s first words of the play in which she is protagonist, it seemed that the company placed emphasis on Twelfth Night within the trilogy, and the performance lived up to such expectations. The comedy traces the story of Viola, one of two twins shipwrecked on opposite coasts of Illyria, a country ruled by the Duke Orsino, who is suffering an unrequited love for the mourning Countess Olivia. Believing her brother to have drowned, and now alone in the world, Viola disguises herself as a boy, changing her name to Cesario, and becomes Orsino’s servant in order to survive. However, she soon falls in love with her master and finds herself caught between him and Olivia, sent to woo her on his behalf. Things are further complicated when Olivia falls in love with the ‘boy’, leading to a love triangle that only the arrival of Viola’s brother, Sebastian, can untangle.
Viola’s entrance at the beginning of the play held incredible impact, clearly stressing the ‘shipwrecked’ theme within the play. Breaking through the water of a large tank that occupied the front-hand-side of the stage, the way she pulled herself panting and dripping to shore showed her to be resilient and resourceful. Played by Emily Taaffe, who also holds major roles in the other two parts of the Company’s trilogy, her short hair and well-learned mannerisms meant she slipped easily into the masculine role of Cesario, making her disguise believable to the audience as well as Orsino’s court. Small and excitable, she not only became a credible youth but also an interesting contrast and balance to the lovelorn Orsino, played by Jonathan McGuinness, whose fiefdom within this play was in fact the police force, rather than an entire country. His slightly cynical and mature demeanour, somewhat jaded and made melancholy by rejection, was lightened and freshened by Cesario’s presence, making his and Viola’s union at the end of the play seem as if it were built on genuine like, despite its fast-paced development.
The age difference between McGuinness and Taaffe did not particularly hinder their characters’ dynamic, but it did seemingly have an impact on the relationship between Taaffe and Kirsty Bushell, who played Olivia. Bushell portrayed Olivia as a mature older woman: headstrong, experienced, and of a similar disposition to the Duke, making her rejection of him slightly less viable and her sudden attraction to Cesario even more so. Though she played the role well, managing her household – in this case a hotel – with the regal nature of a modern-day countess and showing realistic embarrassment at both Viola’s polite rejections and her unveiling at the end of the play, her strong character altered the dynamic between her and Cesario to the point where it was, to a small extent, damaged. It was simply unbelievable that such an experienced and stately woman would pine so senselessly after the young, roguish Cesario; the sense of desperation this unrequited infatuation required did not appear to sit well with her character, and made their relationship on stage awkward. This was particularly shown when compared with her interactions with Sebastian when she mistakes him for Cesario – with her true love she acts much more forthright and coquettishly, her claims of love becoming believable, playful and as confident as she acts with him. With Sebastian (Stephen Hagan, who, apart from attire and voice, was in no way identical to Taaffe and yet somehow undeniably became her brother) Olivia became an experienced woman who could take the lead in courtship, rather than the plaintive, weak and clingy lovesick girl she tried unsuccessfully to imitate with the disguised Viola.
Though the two entangled couples held the audience’s attention with great skill, they were to some extent upstaged by the capers of the subplot, of which Malvolio (Jonathan Slinger, appearing as Prospero in The Tempest) stole the show. The finicky butler of Olivia’s household, whom many dislike and hold in contempt, Malvolio becomes the victim of the trickery of Olivia’s maid Maria after putting an end to the revels of foolish knight Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Olivia’s delightfully and brazenly drunk cousin Sir Toby Belch, played by Nicholas Day, whose drunken behaviour, complete with slurring and a number of belches that lived up to his name, was somewhat convincing. Maria convinces Malvolio through a letter, supposedly written by the Countess, that Olivia is in love with him, and wishes for him to show his love by appearing in “yellow stockings,” “cross gartered,” and “smiling.”
These seemingly harmless statements were realised in cringe-worthy hilarity by an incredibly confident Slinger in the second half, appearing “cross gartered” in a black leather thong, yellow thigh-high stockings, and nothing else apart from his suit coat. Slinger’s Malvolio was brilliantly portrayed, his smile verging on the border between derangement, stupidity, and stalker. His humiliation – complete when those unfortunate enough to be sat in the right of the stalls had to witness him ascend some stairs – was by far the funniest and most lasting image of the play, and left him completely at Maria’s and her gang’s mercy, as he was declared, quite understandably given his performance, a madman. The company also chose to make this revenge easier for the audience to swallow by having him threaten Maria with violence in the first half – making this cruel punishment seem far more in proportion to his crime, and therefore seem less cruel and more hilarious.
Overall, the play was a complete success, making good use of innovative scenery and a modern-day setting (for instance, the cowardly Aguecheek whimpering “I’ll hold” into his mobile when trying to leave in disgrace). Leaving the audience in tears of laughter at times and earning huge applause, the play certainly stressed not only international themes but the international endurance of Shakespeare – and the strength and skill his lasting presence lends to British theatre.
I disagree with almost everything you say about the lovers. Viola was shrieking and annoying from the start. There was no hint of anything between her and Orsino and Viola flip flopped from ice queen to vixen with no credibility at all. If you thought they were superb you are very easilt pleased.
Maybe I am. Whenever I go to see Shakespeare I end up loving it. If the performance is somewhat lukewarm the words, for me, clearly convey what the actors fail to. I liked that Viola was not particularly seductive – she wouldn’t have been a convincing boy if she had been. The casting was to some extent off, but the company had to cater for three plays, so I suppose there was some compromise involved.
I too saw the production late March and thought it dire. Your review in my opinion is too generous. The underlying motivating structure was ‘out of joint’ and consequently nothing appeared to work or to be in place. Malvolio, for example, appearing in jock strap was consistent with this ill-thought out production – just inappropriate and there for a cheap laugh. So unbalanced was the production that the joke against Malvolio just seemed cruel and all those taking part in it, stupidly sadistic. This is not a fault in the play but the interpretation. The unremittingly dark stage, the lazy carribean setting, the seemingly deliberate inclusion of irish accents, the crude sinking to self indulgent sexual gratification…. Casting was no better: why not make an effort to make the twins twin-like; the brazen Olivia lacking any feminine grace or intelligent vulnerability, and so on. There was no calm thoughtful humour in the production – it seemed to be high on some reality distorting substance. In my view it is a production not worth seeing.
I agree that the idea that the people playing Viola and Sebastian were twins was tenuous at best, but on the other hand I didn’t mind – they at least acknowledged it through the gesture which marked the two out as similar, rather than simply rely on them wearing the same clothes. Perhaps this was also the reason for them having Irish accents, Particularly as it set them both out from the rest of the Illyrians which, as their positions as shipwrecked outsiders would require, seems like a viable option to the director.
And maybe we were just a less harsh audience, but the Malvolio scene had everyone in tears of laughter, whether that was cheap or not. From what I can gather from reading Twelfth Night there is very little motivation for Malvolio’s humiliation, apart from the fact he’s a jerk, and this was portrayed by Slinger.
And maybe the reality distorting thing was deliberate, as Sebastian says, he feels like he’s in a dream.
I saw Twelfth Night in March and was very disappointed. It is such a good play with wonderful opportunities, but I felt let down. I see almost everything at the RSC, and this was one of the worst productions I have seen for some time. To hear that the same set is to be used for Comedy of Errors (which I am seeing this weekend) and the Tempest, also makes me sigh with disappointment, The disjointed and sprawling set was one of the worst things about Twelfth Night. I agree with comments already made about Olivia and felt a total absence of true love or desire from Viola, Orsino or Olivia. Poor.
I loved the set. It allowed for several things to go on at once, and I think that seeing Olivia in mourning on her bed was particularly poignant, and everyone jumped when Viola first broke through the water – it had a great impact, and if they’ve chosen a ‘shipwrecked’ theme then I think it was an innovative way to do it – the whole set seemed mangled and broken, like a ship that’s run aground and splintered on the rocks.
Though, if you felt that the quality was below par for RSC then you’re probably more of an expert than I am. This was my first RSC production, and if it was a bad one as you say then I look forward to seeing the good one, to be honest.
The was the first performance I have watched at the RSC and I was quite disappointed. I enjoyed seeing Viola jump out of the water and seeing Malvolio in yellow stockings, but on the other hand, I thought Viola a bit loud and the words slurred and rushed most of the time. I listened to Twelfth Night on BBC Radio 3 (with David Tennant) and I could catch the words much better, making the experience much more enjoyable.
Despite these comments, I still found myself buying tickets for The Tempest for the next day’s performance by the same casting.
I’ve seen more Twelfth Nights than had hot dinners. This production was energetic and refreshing, helped by the multi-set. Even the dreaded box-tree scene was rescued by the best Malvolio yet. He quite out-clowned Feste (an aged music-hall comic-turn, who threw away his last song).
I prefer a young, silly Olivia, living in a teen-age dream of Loss and Love. However .. I now HAVE to see The Tempest to see what Stringer does with Prospero, and how the set adapts.