ComedyFringe TheatreReviews

Review: Twelfth Night, Tower Theatre

summary

Rating

Excellent

‘Imagine Shakespeare meets Saturday Night Fever’ is the promotion for this production. The show artfully brings the 1970’s disco theme to this fresh take on the humorous Shakespeare story of love ploys, cunning disguises and mischievous pranks.

A 1970’s disco theme would probably not suit many of Shakespeare’s works; a fun musical dance show would be jarring with a serious death-filled tragedy.  Director Gavin McAlinden made a wise choice to bring the more light-hearted Twelfth Night to life through the bright world of disco. After all, a nightclub is a setting where you often find people scheming for love alongside drink fuelled joking, and this is a story with plenty of both. 

The 70’s aesthetic is not used as a simple gimmick, McAlinden and designer Esme Solomon have infused the entire show with 70’s style. All the costumes you might expect to see are present: flared trousers, frilly shirts, neon-coloured clothes and sunglasses galore. A range of well-chosen 70’s music is used throughout, perfectly matching the mood of each scene. The theme from ‘Mission Impossible’ accompanies a desperate search for alcohol and when a duel is settled with a Fung-Fu fight, you can guess which amusingly suitable song accompanies the action.

The disco setting is established before the show even properly begins. As the audience climbs the stairs to the auditorium, we hear the growing sounds of Abba. We step through the doors to see the stage filled with the cast dancing away whilst we take our seats. Much of the set is dedicated to the frequently used dancefloor, with disco balls hovering overhead, whilst plots are hatched at some tables and a bar counter. The show soon kicks off with a very well-choreographed ‘Night Fever’ dance performance. The dance coaches Beatris Mori (also part of the cast) and Alex Georgiadis have clearly worked well with the company, as the dozen or so actors are perfectly synchronised in their movements. It’s the first of many dance numbers, some smaller, some larger, but all brilliantly performed. The cast commendably pull off the double duty of having to knowing the script whilst also committing the dance moves to memory. Actors regularly switch from dance to dialogue without much chance to catch their breath, all without a hitch.

The fun of the dancing is matched by the comic nature of the plot. Viola (Kamilla Aranauskaite) has barely survived a shipwreck and so gets a job working for Duke Orsino (Peter Jeffries) by disguising herself as a man ‘Cesario’. Viola completely fools everyone she meets by putting her hair in a ponytail and wearing a baseball cap. Orsino has an unrequited love for Olivia (Lara Dean) so Viola/Cesario is tasked with hyping Orsino up to her.But Viola’s manly disguise works too well, so Olivia instead falls for Viola/Cesario.  Whilst Viola has herself fallen for Orsino. More confusion arises when Viola’s twin brother Sebastian (Karl Noble), who was presumed dead, arrives in town and is immediately mistaken for ‘Cesario’.

Mayhem is also caused by the members of Olivia’s household. The perpetually sozzled Sir Toby (Aryan Chavda) and Sir Andrew (Steve Saxby) are a fantastic double act. They are joined by handmaid Maria (Zoë Cooper), servant Fabian (Nilesh Mistry) and jester Feste (Beatris Mori) in a comic conspiracy to humiliate the pompous and snooty Malvolio (Jed Sheahan).  Feste also amuses the group by solo performing a couple of songs, very well performed by Mori.

The cast is brilliant and clearly having a lot of fun with both the story and the dancing, which draws the audience along for the ride. How else can such as show end but with a big bold dance number? But after the bows and applause comes one final bit of fun as the cast gleefully calls on the audience to join them on stage for a final bit of dancing to cap it all off.


Written by: William Shakespeare
Presented by: The Acting Gymnasium
Adapted and directed by: Gavin McAlinden
Designed by: Esme Solomon
Assistant Director: Mika Shiraham
Stage Manager: Maria Saxby
Dance coaches: Beatris Mori and Alex Georgiadis

Twelfth Night plays at Tower Theatre until 27 July. Further information and tickets available here.

Michael Taylor

Michael is a lifelong Londoner who enjoys using his free time to explore all the fantastic and madcap sights that London has to offer. This often involves the arts and is occasionally something he stumbles across by complete accident. Having experienced many enjoyable adventures in theatre, he continues to be entertained and educated by the wide variety of shows on offer.

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