Squaring the circle of
Twelfth Night
is no easy task. Modern audiences are aware that, like a number of
Shakespeare's other plays, its resolution leaves a number of loose ends
that suggest no little unpleasantness in a notional Act VI; yet almost
all attempts to acknowledge this in the play's staging create more
awkwardness than they solve, with a palpable crashing of dramatic gears.
Gregory Doran's strategy in his latest RSC version is personified in
two pieces of casting. As the self-regarding steward Malvolio, Richard
Wilson (in, amazingly, his Shakespearean début) brings a touch
of Victor Meldrew to the role. This is not a glib remark: the thing
about
One Foot In The Grave
was that it consisted not just of comic misfortunes befalling the
definitive grumpy old man, but that these were peppered with passages
of disconcerting poignancy. So too here, after the classic scenes of
comedy in which Malvolio finds a forged love letter and consequently
presents himself before his mistress Olivia in yellow stockings and
grinning like a gargoyle on Ecstasy, there is genuine unease when we
see him confined in a dark prison cage with no idea why, being
mercilessly teased by the fool Feste.
Feste is Doran's other major focus. He has cast Miltos Yerolemou, one
of our finest clowning actors, but in order that he might play against
this type. Yerolemou knows all the tricks, but here he deliberately
makes them seem hollow, his Feste being bitterly aware of how
contingent his position is on goodwill and patronage. It doesn't even
matter that much that, in one of Shakespeare's most musical roles, here
is an actor who sometimes just lets fly at a note and hopes for the
best.
As the lovesick Count Orsino, Jo Stone-Fewings gives himself over to
romantic fervour all the more amusing in someone so stocky; as his
unrequited
innamorata Olivia,
Alexandra Gilbreath is characteristically lively and self-aware when
she finds herself falling instead for young Cesario, who is actually
Viola in disguise (Nancy Carroll in a strong performance but not a
hugely individual one). James Fleet, in greying Cavalier hair and
tartan trews, is a natural as the gormless Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and
Richard McCabe intelligently interlaces his performance as Sir Toby
Belch between the light and dark, as well as bearing a distinct
likeness to the appropriately named The Big Figure, drummer with
R&B band Dr Feelgood.
Written for the Financial
Times.