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SHAKESPEARE'S TWELFTH NIGHT... WITH SURFBOARDS

RADICAL: Surfboards, inflatables and deckchairs make Twelfth Night more funny

Tuesday August 12,2008

By Julia White for express.co.uk

OPEN air theatre, performed during the English summer, set in a seaside resort - surely a situation that has rain written all over it.

But instead, blue sky and sunshine formed the backdrop to the Oxford Shakespeare Company’s opening performance of Twelfth Night.

Hosted in the most glorious of settings – Kensington Palace Gardens – this modern take on one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies is fast-paced, energetic and, at times, hilarious.

Director Bill Bankes-Jones sets the traditional play in a modern seaside resort.

The characters wear linens, stripy t-shirts and boat shoes (apart from twins Viola and Sebastian who, rather incongruously, wear Elizabethan dress) and the set is dressed with deck chairs, blow up palm trees and surf boards.

BACKDROP: The setting is perfect

His gamble mostly pays off – as the unusual setting makes some of the funny parts of the play even funnier.

The Malvolio (James Lavender) stocking scene, for example, had the audience laughing out loud.

When Olivia’s butler is tricked into thinking he can win her heart if he dresses in yellow stockings he looks hilarious when he appears sporting yellow briefs, a yellow visor, carrying a yellow surfboard.

And it is just as entertaining when the trio behind the plot, Sir Toby (Dafydd Gwyn Howells), Maria (Katy Morgan) and Sir Andrew (Harry Arkwright), duck behind a sun lounger – and then a surfboard - so as not to be seen.

What is gained in humour, though, is perhaps lost in emotion between the characters.

Olivia (Kali Peacock) gives a rubber – rather than metal – ring to the object of her affection Viola (Kirsty Yates). And although the audience’s response is laughter any importance that could be attached to the giving of a ring is lost.

Most of the other relationships between the characters left me unconvinced. I didn't really believe that Orsino and Viola were in love.

But despite the love affairs often being unconvincing, individual roles are acted well - with Maria and Malvolio’s parts the stand-out performances, and Olivia and the fool also impressive.

Bearing in mind she performed with a broken leg in a cast, Viola's brave and accomplished performance was also noteworthy.

Collectively, the cast performs to a high standard and the final scene – in which the twins are reunited and the love triangle is resolved – is compelling.

And whether or not we fall in love with love itself, it is impossible not to get romantically carried away when watching such passionate actors in such a perfect location.

Oxford Shakespeare Company, Twelfth Night at Kensington Palace Gardens
Saturday 2nd August to Friday 15th August

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