Where better to check out Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s classic comedy about mistaken identity, than at Shakespeare’s Globe? As the sun sets on a warm summer’s evening in London, this charming open air setting feels like the perfect place for a lighthearted slice of summery comedy. In fact this is not our first time at this particular rodeo – we went to check out the 2021 production of this play at the exact same venue and had a lovely time – but given this is a new staging with director Robin Belfield at the helm, we thought it was time for a return visit.
A recap: we are introduced to Viola (Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́) who is shipwrecked and cast ashore in Illyria; she has become separated from her brother Sebastian (Kwami Odoom) who she believes has died in the shipwreck. Fearing herself alone in an alien land, she disguises herself as a man and gains employment in the court of Duke Orsino (Solomon Israel), who she immediately falls for. Orsino tasks Viola with delivering love letters to Lady Olivia (Laura Hanna) who immediately falls in love with Viola (believing her to be a man named Cesario). This scenario is complicated by the arrival of Sebastian who, as the audience is well aware from an early stage, survived the shipwreck and has also arrived in Illyria.
It’s all very silly and lighthearted indeed. Twelfth Night is already quite a queer play in that there is a degree of gender fluidity to Viola’s role, as well as the blurring of traditional gender roles – and, of course, the whole plot about cases of mistaken identity is all rather camp. Something new for this production is the relationship between Sebastian and the ship’s captain, Antonio (Max Keeble); many have interpreted Antonio’s loyalty and devotion towards Sebastian as something more romantic than friendly, and this performance makes that far more explicit than implicit. Which of course we’re completely here for.
This production of Twelfth Night really dials up the comedy – we’ve seen versions of this show which explore the underlying complexities within the various relationships, but this is all somewhat glossed over here in favour of keeping things lighthearted. Jos Vantyler is strong as jester Feste – often very funny, occasionally rather sinister, and boasting a terrific singing voice; Pearce Quigley delivers a quirky and unconventional Malvolio; and there’s a spot of audience participation, which is good fun.
Yes, it’s all wonderfully queer and delightfully daft; no, it’s not the most nuanced production of Twelfth Night we’ve seen, and no there’s not a huge amount of depth to these characters to sink your teeth into. This performance keeps things quite surface level – it’s all light and breezy – but hey, for a nice summery easy watch, this fits the bill really rather nicely.
GAY TIMES gives Twelfth Night – 4/5
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