If music be the food of love….play on.
Not only one of Shakespeare’s most famous quotes but a fabulous summary of this wonderful twist on Twelfth Night by Not too Tame and Shakespeare North.
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Not Too Tame, pride themselves on being “award-winning and great night out’ specialists. They produce high-octane, heart-on-sleeve stories that are steeped in working-class culture”. The audience experience sits at the heart of everything they do. This is a perfect summary of the play we watched on Monday night that was chaotic, wonderful, loud, surprising and often very very funny.
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Twelfth Night centres around the misadventures of Sebastian and Viola, twins who are separated during a shipwreck (or in this updated version, a rave ), and their misadventures continue throughout their separation during a tale which is known for its hilarious mistaken identity plot and farcical hijinks.
The production as always at Shakespeare North was characterised by a vibrant energy and incredible musical performances. Being a regular and having seen the theatre’s quirky interpretations of The Comedy of Errors; Midsummers Night Dream and a Christmas Carol, I should not have been surprised to be singing along loudly to Son of a Bitch during the play but for some reason I was. Purvi Parmar is superb as Olivia, and her solo of Shakespeare’s Sister’s “Stay” is also incredible.
What I was also quite taken aback by, was Les Dennis’s captivating performance of Malvolio. Taken aback by his yellow stockings and heavy make up indeed, but more by how he managed to bring vulnerability and sympathy to a usually thoroughly unlikeable character. With a little more reading I did find out that Dennis has actually had a long standing theatre career which includes the RSC rather than just Saturday Night tele and he brings all that experience to this role. He elevates the other actors performances rather than overshadowing which can be easily done in a play with just one headline name.
Apparently the play is close to 2 hours 30 long but it’s a testament to the cast that I didn’t feel like it was even a teeny tiny bit too long. Albeit at times I did agree with Sebastian’s summary of the concluding scene, “What the f**k is going on?”
Not Too Tame’s adaptation runs until 29 June 2004, check it out before it’s moved on.
