Twelfth Night – Joseph Rowntree Reviews

Twelfth Night is a really amazing performance! Despite the old fashioned language and it being hard to understand at times, it really is a great show. It’s very funny and your guaranteed to be laughing! It really is worthwhile going to see. 

 Leanne Moore

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York Theatre Royals “must see” production of Shakespeare’s classic was a creative piece with a brilliant cast. The play deals with mistaken identity and confusion which was rather comic and the characters portrayed this well. Danielle King (playing Viola) was packed full of talent, her ability to play a very flexible role was excellent and the character was 100% there, 100% of the time. She was perfect as the lead role. We see Jacqueline Wood as Maria who a mischeivous and cheeky character who controls and commands at Malvolio and Sir Andrew Aguecheek played by Paul Westward, a true entertainer and comedian who also portrays the characters emotions perfectly. 

This production makes use of multimedia piece at the start, showing a shipwreck. This is projected on a sheet with two men either side pulling to add the extra effect. However I think that you go to the theatre to see it live not to watch something that’s has been recorded before hand. Nevertheless I think that it worked well with this particular piece because it was a short amount of time and it simply set the scene creatively. This couldn’t be portrayed as well on the stage because it is hard to do it professionally. The actually set itself was simple but sometimes more is less. It again works because it is flexible and allows us to image several scene’s not just one.  

This is an extremely successful piece from the York Theatre Royal; the characters particularly make this piece for me. I think they were all excellent and showed a range of emotions reflecting the character brilliantly. I think Shakespeare is rather hard to understand particularly for younger people but the characters were so clear I and everyone else who saw it understood it. I thought the set and costume really reflect the mood and tone of piece brilliantly.

This is one production Shakespeare would be proud of! 

Kyasha Popely

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Let’s cut to the chase – there is only really one negative thing about this play: the language. Despite the fact that this play is hard to understand for a modern-day teenager (or for anyone unfamiliar with little knowledge Elizabethan language) it has modern-day humour. You do not need to understand the language to understand the play, because this comes across in the acting – which, of course, is what a good production should be like. All three actresses were very good, especially Danielle King, who plays Viola. She fitted into the role perfectly. The actors were good too, although sometimes a little loud for the scenes where they were all drunk. However, their on-stage instruments were amazing! The music really added a lot of character to the show; it was the best part. Not only were Ian Harris and Paul Westwood good actors, they are also very talented musicians. Another amazing scene when Orsino had a shower on the stage, and it was great how it was done – it was quite clever. To be brutally honest, the play didn’t look as good in the brochure as it actually was. I did not think I would actually enjoy Twelfth Night; I couldn’t have been more wrong – it was a very entertaining night. Thank you, York Theatre Royal! 

Megan Dale

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Oliver Addison  

Juliet Forster has created a superb comedy for the whole family to enjoy. Its main plot is about surviving a shipwreck, from which the two main survivors think that other one of them is dead. From then on the plot thickens as Viola (Danielle King) settles in looking exactly like their brother, who was the other main survivor of the wreck, as a page for Duke Orisno (Sam Hazeldine). Viola, now known as Cesario, is given the task of rallying back and forth between the Duke and Olivia (Jade Anouka). When her brother, Sebastian (Jack Ashton), arrives on dry land he gets mistaken for Cesario, who is Viola in disguise, and then everything take a turn for the worse for the twins. 

The second plot is about Olivia’s steward Malvolio (Dick Bradnum), who is tricked by Olivia’s uncle, Sir Toby Belch (Blair Plant), her servant, Maria (Jacqueline Wood), and Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Paul Westwood) who are all plotting against Malvolio. 

The music being played by the characters is not something I have seen before in theatre, so I believed it worked really well. Richard G Jones has captured the atmosphere radiantly with his attention to detail on with the lights. The characters themselves were well thought out by the actors, who played them very well indeed. It was very easy to empathise with them and Malvolio’s snobbishness was truly hilarious. 

I would definitely recommend going to experience this magnificent production; it is truly a brilliantly directed play. It’s a pity that William Shakespeare himself couldn’t be here to witness this dazzling performance… 

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Twelfth Night is probably THE MOST confusing play that Shakespeare ever wrote. If any-one asks you to explain the plot, DON’T. Don’t even try. It would be quicker to sit them down in front of a TV and make them watch it on DVD (or at the theatre for that matter). All of which must make it so frustrating for a director – getting the balance right for the play must be so hard. It has to be simple enough so that it’s easy enough to understand but not so simple so that it loses its effect. I have to say that it got the balance very nearly spot on. It was a little confusing at the beginning (Shakespeare English didn’t help) but that’s to be expected, it’s not possible to make it immediately obvious to the audience which character is which.  

The set was very simple (in a good way), it didn’t get in the way of the acting at all and was used very well. The lighting was brilliant; with different colours and shades telling you where you where on the island of Illyria, where the story is set. For example, Orsino’s court was a slightly different colour to Olivia’s; only a subtle difference but obvious enough so that you noticed it and that it helped a little bit. The film introduction was well done from the filming point of view and was a good idea but it was confusing and you could have done with-out it.  

The music in the play was superb, the on-stage violinist and flute-player harmonized beautifully and the music really helped portray the mood of the scene. All the actors performed wonderfully but the one that really stood out for me was Dick Brandnum as Marvolio, Olivia’s butler. To sum the character and the performance of the character up I would say that he was a wonderfully perfectly brilliant snob. Even though I didn’t understand a lot of the words because of it being Shakespeare English, the actors really put across what the words are supposed to mean and because of that I got a lot more of the jokes than I thought I would. I could go on and on and on about how brilliant the actors were but I would never stop. A truly great show all around. 

Mark Thompson