"If music be the food of love, play on." Theatre is of course another food of love, and with Purplecoat Productions, like so many others, it is, but for them, they will play on in another sphere. After seeing this production of Twelfth Night, full of heart, humour and good acting from a young group of untrained actors, it is a pity. But for one night only, as part of their tour, they arrived at the Boys' School in Smock Alley, and treated us to their brand of Shakespeare.
The action is updated to now, and relocated to an Ibiza like place. A row of printed beach towels hanging from a line at the back of the stage, a couple of suitcases, and other beach paraphernalia, the full cast on stage with the dance music going strong until it stops lets us know where we are in the first few moments. With an inventive rendering of the shipwreck, the twins Viola (Caitlin Clough) and Sebastian (Jack Spencer) are washed up off the coast of Illyria, both believing that the other has drowned. At this point Shakespeare decides that Viola will disguise herself as a boy, Cesario, and enters the service of Orsino (Daniel Carmichael), who has his sights and heart set on Olivia (Rhea Little), and sends Cesario to help woo her, but of course Olivia goes mad for Cesario, who at this stage Viola/Cesario is falling for Orsino. Meanwhile, Sebastian is saved by Antonia (Amy Murphy) and turns up in Illyria as well. Alongside this is Malvolio (Stewart McDonald), Olivia's Stewart, who is not so impressed by Toby (Karl Falconer), Maria (Natasha Ryan), Sir Andrew (Sam Liu) or even Feste (Lee Burnitt) despite his fine folk-like singing voice and guitar playing, but the ever drinking Toby comes up with his own cunning plan to get back at Malvolio. Disguises, false pretences, and the fool who is perhaps the wisest of them all, make up this tale with a lot of bawdiness, silliness, and in the end a practical joke that goes wrong, but all, as is the case, will be righted, almost, in the end.
After a slow and rocky start, it all gets into its stride, with the cast creating the shipwreck themselves, and then getting stuck into the comedy scenes with gusto, performing well, but getting better as the evening progresses, and by the end, they have us in the palm of their hands. There are a lot of lovely touches like the scene where Malvolia finds the note, it has that feel of zaniness, almost cartoon, but you simply have to love it. All they way through there are touches such as these, but when the serious moments arrive, they settle into them well, unafraid to show the cruel side either, or use silence. All the cast put in a great performances, and as the programme notes say that there are three who have never done anything like this before, to be honest, it is hard to pick out who, the standard is so high from all, delivering their lines with thought and timing. There was a freshness to it all which was very, well, refreshing
Placing it in the holiday scenario works well, directed by Karl Falconer, who also plays Toby, and this runs through the whole play with small touches and attentions to detail that binds it all together, as do the costumes by Alexandra Shaw, who also designed the set, as they use modern dress, but are right for the character, even placing Sebastian and Viola in the same colours and type of clothes, with others in the holiday rep type uniform of red polo shirt and shorts. It is lovely to hear Shakespeare's lines coming out seasoned by that wonderful Liverpudlian accent from some, adding flavour and variety to the accents on display. Feste's songs have a whimsical folk style about them, sung finely with good guitar playing as well. They also used a number of aspects of the theatre itself, the walkways around the Boys' School, the arches on the back wall, all became part of the play, adapting to their surroundings well.
It would seem that this labour of love, to some degree, is lost, as this tour is Purplecoat's last theatre production as they are concentrating on Youth Theatre, working with 12-18 year old on Shakespeare. There is a film on the way, Route 66a and the creation of a fringe venue in the next year. All this without funding, which place them firmly alongside many fine production companies here that do it because they love it.
Normally I would recommend you go see this, but it is a one night only gig here in Dublin, and that one night is over. No doubt you will see them in their final foray at other venues across the water, and if so, then do take a look; you will laugh, be entertained, but also be told this story well. Watching this production, it was easy to understand why this group got support from the RSC.
Photo courtesy of Purplecoat Productions