Twelfth Night – the name of this play is as familiar to me as A Midsummer Night’s
Dream – and yet I hadn’t seen it before, at least I don’t think so – it is
one of those, in seeing which, you get kind of a deja vue feeling. Here we have
another that starts with a shipwreck and uses two of Shakespeare’s favourite
comedy devices of mistaken identities and twins – well hey if you have a
formula that works, it well bears repeating. That said I’m not sure many
writers these days would get away with quite so much repeating ;)
This is a great
fun romp - the main attractions in this case are Mark Rylance playing Countess
Olivia and Stephen Fry as her steward Malvolio; both of whom romp to the max. The
production marks Stephen Fry’s first return to the stage after his now famous
disappearance from it 17 years ago during a performance of Cell Mates.
He was said to have had a bad reaction to reviews – as he later and so movingly
explained in his documentary The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, he
in fact had a bipolar depression. Since that coming out, Stephen seems to have
coped with life and performance even better than before – he is on our screens
in something almost every single week, as presenter, actor, comedian, quiz show
host… he now also has his own production company, writes profusely, travels
also profusely and is an all-round absolutely wonderful example of a highly
creative human being. He’s been challenged on his kindness by Pamela Stephenson
Connolly in one of her Shrink Wrap programmes – but as he said he just
likes to be nice – and whyever not?! In my opinion he is the nicest celebrity
of whom I’ve had any experience and I am the proud owner of a personal letter
from him – that said, as are many others – he gives as much as he can to as
many as he can. He also has my empathy and understanding because I have
experience of a loved one with bipolar disorder. For that reason I’d decided
this review would honour that empathy and be as kind as possible. BUT he has no
need of that degree of kindness at all. His performance as Malvolio is absolutely
excellent!! No excuses required – in fact so much the opposite. If I can be so
bold I think that his coming out, and being so open and sharing, has enabled
his expressiveness and now he can fully excel in who and how he is. Stephen
lends the very best of Stephen Fry to this role and is absolutely adorable.
(Okay, yes, as Shakespeare is a repeater of plot devices, so I am of
superlatives and absolutelys ;))
I felt so
anxious for him. Not knowing the play I didn’t know when he would first make an
entrance. I was also eagerly awaiting Mark Rylance’s entrance. And, of my
goodness, what an entrance that was! Countess Mark-Olivia tiptoes in and parades
the stage as though on wheels – I still haven’t worked out how it is that men
in Elizabethan dresses as woman look like they are being wheeled around but
it’s very funny! Dressed in black – his character in mourning for her father
and brother and swearing to avoid the company of men for 7 years; which doesn’t
last much more than 7 minutes! – looking elegant, perfectly feminine, poised,
lady-like and very slim! Such a far cry from the puffed-up strength and
burliness of Rooster in Jerusalem. In fact you wouldn’t believe it was
the same person, and yet, in Mark Rylance’s case you absolutely would! There is
such an ease to his manner and embodiments that it all seems as natural as
breathing – a turn of phrase, manner and attitude occurs seamlessly in a heart-beat.
He gives us acting perfection, so real that it really is not an act. He is just
being! He can be male or female and we believe him. And yet he can still work
so delightfully with the incongruence and hence comedy of the fact that he is a
man playing a woman. A man in drag?! Oh no! It’s like a gender in between,
which is how he seems. So soft and sensitive – how can such a person
convincingly give us Richard III – well he can and did – albeit with much more
sensitivity and humanity; still the bitter, deformed tyrant. And so he
processes the stage and takes us; the audience along with him – so much so that
it took me some time to realise others had come along in with him – amongst
those others Stephen-Malvolio. Before I was aware there the dear man was
advising his mistress!! Stephen and I had somehow avoided the anxiety of his
entrance in the entrancement of Mark-Olivia.
And maybe the
entrancement by both of these is the reason why scenes without them seem almost
banal and routine. You find yourself thinking “Okay, here’s a bit of
Shakespeare filling, til the best bits come.” And actually that IS a shame. Twelfth
Night is the story of young Viola - here played by Samuel Barnett – who
survives the aforementioned shipwreck, in which she believes her twin brother
Sebastian to have drowned, and takes on the disguise of a young man, calling
herself Cesario, and enters the service of Duke Orsino (Liam Brennan). The
latter is attempting to woe Countess Olivia and sends Cesario to do the job for
him ;) Viola falls for Orsino and Olivia is bewitched with love for Cesario…
and so the usual wonderful Shakespearian romantic comedy ensues. Samuel Barnett
is a very worthy and talented young male actor – whom I liked very much indeed
as Queen Elizabeth in Richard III by the same company. But here he
drowns and Viola along with him – NOT because he is bad, but because his goods
aren’t good enough to make him as visible as he needs to be to match the likes
of Mark-Olivia, Stephen-Malvolio and also Paul Chahidi as Olivia’s gentlewoman
Maria. One of the wonders of this play are Shakespeare’s musings – through his
characters – on men and women in love and how they deal differently with love
and that state of being. Samuel is a man, playing a woman, who then takes on
the role of a man, and Shakespeare made the absolute most of this in the
dialogue he provided for Viola and her interactions. Sadly this doesn’t make
enough impression. The subplot involving the tricks played by Maria and others
– including the lovely fool Feste (Peter Hamilton Dyer) – on Malvolio seem to
become the main plot…
And OMG how
delicious! Malvolio is convinced that Olivia is in love with him and that she
delights in him wearing yellow stockings and cross-garters… he must smile
profusely at her to show her that he returns her affection. And here is where
we get the highlight between Mark-Olivia and Stephen-Malvolio as the latter
delivers the famous line…
“Some are born great, some become
great and some have greatness thrust upon them…”
thrusting
himself onto her!!! The entire audience laughed long and hard at this.
Where Stephen’s
expressions of love as Malvolio are thrusting and blatant, Mark’s towards
Cesario, and then Sebastian are charmingly subtle and faltering. Where Stephen
strides across the stage and later dances deliberately and clumsily like a
bouncing baboon, Mark glides along until startled when he trots along like a
colt before rapidly regaining that graceful mare.
I’d happily see
that baboon and horse together on Strictly Come Dancing… meanwhile they
were stunningly entertaining in the finale dance on that beautiful replica
Globe stage.
Twelfth Night – Review
by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2012
Twitter: @RestrictReview
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