Horne's Malvolio Leads a Punchy Twelfth Night Revival — SkimNews
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- Mathew Horne plays Malvolio as a stiff, haughty arriviste whose comeuppance — tricked into yellow-stockinged morris-dancing — is 'as funny as it ever is' in Shakespeare, moving from pompous to bruised 'and ever unrepentant.'
- Genevieve Dawson's live folk-club score on clarinet, guitar and violin gives the production a 1970s earthiness likened to The Wicker Man, contrasting Malvolio's urbanity.
- David Birrell plays Feste less as a fool than a troubadour in expensive dress, his 'mellifluous' and plangent songs casting 'a note of uncertainty' over the comic romance.
- Director Jamie Glover fields much of the same ensemble that appeared in last month's King Lear, staging the play against Amanda Stoodley's stony circular set presided over by a blood-orange sun.
- Bebe Sanders' plain-speaking Viola goes undercover as Cesario and inadvertently wins Justina Kehinde's Olivia, while Fode Simbo's Orsino is 'plain deluded' until Harry Redding's Sebastian arrives.
- The reviewer calls the show 'punchy, satisfying,' praising its 'dream-like instability' and the merriment in the confusion and its untangling.
Why it matters: This Twelfth Night demonstrates a company building a distinctive house style by re-deploying its King Lear ensemble under Jamie Glover's direction, with a 1970s aesthetic threading through costume, live folk score and set design to give a familiar comedy a fresh, period-tinged frame.
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