PATRICK MARMION theatre review: A tale of two Twelfth Nights... but which one's top?
Share:
Twelfth Night (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon). Rating:. Verdict: Clowning glory. Twelfth Night (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond). Verdict: Ravishing treat. Now the 12 days of Christmas are upon us, who comes out on top in two festive stagings of Shakespeare’s midwinter comedy?.
![[West is perfectly snooty as Lady Olivia’s haughty manservant Malvolio, affecting an officious nasally twang, writes Patrick Marmion]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/27/01/93508507-0-image-a-31_1735262083055.jpg)
In Stratford, we have a full-scale RSC revival starring All Creatures Great And Small’s Siegfried Farnon (also known as Samuel West). And in Richmond we have a gorgeously intimate production with veterans including Jane Asher, Oliver Ford Davies and Clive Francis.
![[Much of the action is set (for no obvious reason) in front of a vast organ loft, with huge pipes like giant fountain pens, writes Patrick Marmion]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/27/01/93508545-14228857-image-a-36_1735262826290.jpg)
The RSC production majors on polishing up the play’s antique comedy, with Michael Grady-Hall turning the fool, Feste, into a circus clown. He completely steals the show, telling the story of shipwrecked twin, Viola, who disguises herself as a man to become a go-between for the Duke of Illyria — only to find that the Duke’s beloved Lady Olivia falls for her instead. West is perfectly snooty as Lady Olivia’s haughty manservant Malvolio, affecting an officious nasally twang.
![[Three decades ago, Matthew Bourne’s staging of Swan Lake, with a bare-chested flock of fearsome swans in feather breeches instead of the trad flock of fragile birds in fluttering goose-down tutus, changed the dance-theatre world forever, writes Patrick Marmion]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/27/01/93508609-0-image-a-32_1735262420512.jpg)
He pushes all the right buttons when he’s tricked into wooing Freema Agyeman’s horrified Olivia. But whether you find him funny depends on how you feel about middle-aged men wearing bondage gear below the waist. It wasn’t for me. The RSC production majors on polishing up the play’s antique comedy, with Michael Grady-Hall turning the fool, Feste, into a circus clown, writes Patrick Marmion.
![[I have seen two of the three current casts, and the performances are strikingly different but similarly satisfying, writes Patrick Marmion]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/27/01/93508605-0-image-a-33_1735262437965.jpg)
