{"id":12784,"date":"2024-12-26T10:35:12","date_gmt":"2024-12-26T09:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12784"},"modified":"2025-01-06T12:31:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T11:31:32","slug":"twelfth-night-royal-shakespeare-theatre-stratford-upon-avon-reviewed-by-paul-knowles-and-edith-powell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12784","title":{"rendered":"Twelfth Night, Royal Shakespeare Theatre (Stratford-upon-Avon), Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>A darkly delicious Christmas retelling of Shakespeare\u2019s raucous gender-swapping comedy. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"\" src=\" https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/382059_Twelfth-Night-landscape-press-image_-2024_2024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"684\" height=\"475\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Twelfth Night<\/i><\/b><b> | Royal Shakespeare Theatre (Stratford-upon-Avon) | 7<\/b><b><sup>th<\/sup><\/b><b> of December<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> <br \/><\/span><\/b><b>Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Undoubtedly, this is one of the most confident, raucous, and dazzling productions of Shakespeare that we have watched over the last few years. The costumes, lighting, and staging are all extraordinarily on point, allowing the whole cast to shine in a production with no weak performances. The play\u2019s opening action of Viola (Gwyneth Keyworth) washing up on the shore, highlights the wonderful eye for detail behind this production. Her purple coat is sodden, and drips water onto the stage, adding a visceral reality to her bewilderment at being saved. Her agony at her brother, Sebastian, being lost at sea is captured by Keyworth\u2019s mature and understated performance, never slipping into overwrought or unbelievable.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Assuredly, however, this version of Twelfth Night is fully concerned with the relationship between Feste and Malvolio and Shakespeare\u2019s exploration of whether it is better to be \u2018a witty fool, than a foolish wit\u2019. Michael Grady-Hall gives a scene stealing performance as Feste, from the moment he descends from a rope onto the stage singing the newly commissioned piece of music by Matt Maltese \u2018Maybe This Christmas\u2019. Grady-Hall captures the melancholy and musicality of Feste, and his performance \u2018Of the Wind and The Rain\u2019 which concludes <i>Twelfth Night<\/i> is one of the finest pieces of theatre we have ever had the pleasure to watch. Samuel West offers a generous performance as Malvolio, acting as the perfect straight man to Grady-Hall and loveable-drunken Sir Toby Belch, played with bawdy gusto by Joplin Sibtain, the knightly flop Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Demetri Goritsas) and the wonderful scheming Fabin (Daniel Millar). Freema Agyeman delivers a powerhouse performance as the grief-stricken Olivia who turns into an infatuated love-fool after sparring and falling for Viola, disguised as Cesario. Viola is wooing Olivia on behalf of Duke Orsino, approached with understated dignity by Bally Gill. The scenes between the two sparkle with wit and chemistry, making believable the growing feelings of romance between them.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The stunning staging is based upon the work of Illyria and Edward Gorey capturing the melancholy and melody that runs through this RSC production of <i>Twelfth Night<\/i>. From the opening black and white stage, which opens up to reveal the grave site of Olivia\u2019s brother, the staging is flawless. We are then reintroduced to Feste as he tumbles down a hill, taken straight out of a children\u2019s cartoon. We then move onto the sheer brilliance of the moment Feste conjures a fully operational organ onto the stage, which houses secret compartments that double as the rooms in Olivia\u2019s court. The staging is truly of the highest quality, rivalling any production of Shakespeare we have ever seen. The music is another astoundingly impressive component of this production, paying homage to one of Shakespeare\u2019s most famous lines: \u2018If music be the fruit of love play on\u2019. Composer Matt Maltese has done a virtuoso job in capturing the madness of infatuation, the cruelty of unrequited love and the joy of finding one\u2019s soul mate. Maltese manages to blend the conflicting, confusing and jousting emotions of the characters into the production\u2019s score, capturing the misery and euphoria of falling in love. The two stand out numbers are the beautifully haunting \u2018Wind and the Rain\u2019 and Maltese\u2019s original song \u2018Maybe this Christmas\u2019, which capture the despair that Christmas brings to many, but also contains the hope that things might turn out better next year.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The standout scene of the production was the confrontation between Malvolio and Feste at the end of the play. Both dressed in yellow stockings and garters, both claiming to be wronged by the other, and both claiming the higher moral ground. This scene confronts us with the universal truth, that we contain both Malvolio and Feste inside us all. We can all be full of our own self-importance, but we also contain a pessimism at being the only one who understands the true state of the world, and believe we could change things with the right circumstances It is Shakespeare\u2019s ability to shine a light on our most secret selves that has made his work so enduringly popular.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Without any hesitation, we recommend this production of <i>Twelfth Night <\/i>as one of the must sees of the year.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It is one of the finest productions of Shakespeare we have watched in the last five years. Containing breathtaking staging, outstanding original music and actors on top of their game. It also contains one of the greatest enactments of Feste, with Michael Grady-Hall giving a performance for the ages. We are confident that it will be talked about by many, for years to come. This RSC production of <i>Twelfth Night<\/i> is a darkly delicious Christmas treat that is not to be missed.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A darkly delicious Christmas retelling of Shakespeare\u2019s raucous gender-swapping comedy. \u00a0 \u00a0 Twelfth Night | Royal Shakespeare Theatre (Stratford-upon-Avon) | 7th of December Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell\u00a0 Undoubtedly, this is one of the most confident, raucous, and dazzling productions of Shakespeare that we have watched over the last few years. The costumes, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[283,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Twelfth Night, Royal Shakespeare Theatre (Stratford-upon-Avon), Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12784\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Twelfth Night, Royal Shakespeare Theatre (Stratford-upon-Avon), Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A darkly delicious Christmas retelling of Shakespeare\u2019s raucous gender-swapping comedy. \u00a0 \u00a0 Twelfth Night | Royal Shakespeare Theatre (Stratford-upon-Avon) | 7th of December Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell\u00a0 Undoubtedly, this is one of the most confident, raucous, and dazzling productions of Shakespeare that we have watched over the last few years. 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