Mathew Horne anchors Glover's punchy Twelfth Night revival — SkimNews
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- Mathew Horne plays Malvolio as stiff, supercilious and oozing self-satisfaction in a tight black suit, going from pompous to bruised yet unrepentant after his yellow-stockinged comeuppance
- Genevieve Dawson's live folk-club score on clarinet, guitar and violin lends the comedy a haunting, 1970s earthiness likened to The Wicker Man
- David Birrell plays Feste less as a fool than a troubadour in expensive dress, delivering mellifluous songs that cast a note of uncertainty over the comic romance
- Jamie Glover directs with energy, clarity and pace, winding up the narrative coil in the first half before releasing the comedic spring in the second
- Amanda Stoodley's set is a stony circular design with a blood-orange sun presiding overhead, reused alongside much of the same ensemble from last month's King Lear
- Bebe Sanders as Viola/Cesario is winningly plain-speaking, inadvertently arousing Justina Kehinde's Olivia, who struggles to reconcile courtly expectations with lustful desire
Why it matters: For audiences choosing among Twelfth Nights, this revival distinguishes itself with a 1970s folk-scored staging and Horne's showpiece turn — a Malvolio whose arriviste pomposity and humiliation land with equal force, and whose 'supercilious' composure carries the play's central thread about status, appearance and falsity.
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