The story of the twins who believe each other drowned only to find themselves in a romantic quadrangle, and the shenanigans of the servants and drunken noblemen, are classic Summer Shakespeare fare. Setting it in the 1920s works extremely well, with gorgeous garments (designed by Jody Burrell), cocktails and general frivolity of the period suiting the tone of the play.

Director, former Cantabrian Melanie Camp has coupled her vision for the play with a terrific cast, a mix of trained and untrained, who work wonderfully well as an ensemble.  The pre-show entertainment of onstage songs and interaction with the audience gets us in the mood and makes the most of the garden setting.

A row of beach houses is the set, designed by Theo Wijnsma. It’s an attractive and smart concept for a play that demands a lot of set changes and rapid exits and entrances.

As always sound is an issue with outdoor productions, some actors struggle to be heard while others, especially as the play nears its end, start rushing through their lines. Minor quibbles for a hugely entertaining couple of hours. 

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There has probably been no other time in recent history for frivolity and decadence than the 1920’s flapper era. And so using this period as a setting for one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies Twelfth Night, enhanced by the seaside theme, has much going for it. 

This year’s Summer Shakespeare production under the assured and creative direction of Melanie Camp does much to use this to bring out the humour with many delightful 1920’s slapstick antics in flapper costumes and appropriate beach attire. 

Set Designer Theo Wijnsma’s row of wonderfully colourful beach huts with equally colourful blankets strung between each creates a magnificent backdrop to the action of the play and provides many and varied places for the actors to enter and exit.

The action that is played out is the well known story of Viola (Alice Pearce) dressed as a boy and, as Cesario, becoming servant to and falling in love with Orsino (Vaughan Luckman) who is in love with Olivia (Alexis Jackson)) who in turn falls for Viola as a boy.  Sebastian (Andrew Gunn), Viola’s twin brother, also turns up making the love triangle become a quartet. 

While these episodes of unrequited love are played out other members of Olivia’s household are upto hijinks of their own, namely Maria (Kirsty Hamilton) and Sir Toby Belch (Todd Dixon) tricking the pompous Malvolio (Ross Young) into thinking that Olivia loves him.  They also trick Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Andrew Clarke) into a duel with Viola.

Feste the Fool (Sam Hallahan) as a barman adds much to the developing mayhem and sings a number of delightful songs. Singing of songs from the era by a large number of the company before the show starts and at the interval adds’s much to the 1920’s atmosphere. 

And throughout the production there are many quirky and delightful innovations, all of the period, to aid the action such as the fight between Viola and Sir Andrew Aguecheek which becomes a duel at 20 paces with tennis rackets.

And unlike often happens with Summer Shakespeare production where youthful enthusiasm and energy overtakes clarity of dialogue and subtly of meaning, this production, while still maintaining a good sense of pace with lots of energy comes across clear and articulate.

The experience and ability of the lead players especially showed that they were all well versed with their lines, understanding well the subtle nuances and by plays inherent in the dialogue while still having a lot of fun.

Delightful outdoor entertainment on a summer’s evening.  

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“If this were play’d upon a stage now,” says Fabian of the gullible Malvolio’s falling for the fake love letter from Olivia that has caused him to parade in yellow stockings and cross garters, “I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.” Thus Shakespeare ‘bites his thumb’ at Aristotle’s dictum that probability is a crucial prerequisite for good comedy.

After all, Twelfth Night asks us to believe that a young woman may convince all and sundry she is male simply by dressing as a man – albeit with a “small pipe [like] the maiden’s organ, shrill, and sound” – and that she and her believed-to-have-perished twin brother, conveniently wearing the same clothes, will therefore be mistaken for each other by those who know them well.

The purpose of this play is not, of course, to replicate real life but to tease out – through our willing suspension of disbelief – human desires and foibles in the context of what we call ‘the silly season’ (a.k.a. the twelve days of Christmas).

This Mel Camp-directed production is happily antipodean in that it’s the height of summer, in the 1920s. Set and props designer Theo Wijnsma’s row of boardwalk changing sheds and hanging beach towels, and Jody Burrell’s splendid costume designs bring a festive air of midsummer madness to proceedings.

As we have come to expect from Shakespeare productions nowadays, there is absolute clarity and understanding in the delivery of a text that sounds perfectly natural in the mouths of this cast. I do not take this for granted but celebrate it whole-heartedly.  

Alice Pearce is as credible a Viola as one may hope to see, effortlessly negotiating her Cesario through the minefield of misdirected and unrequited love with just the right balance of vulnerability and assertiveness; innocence and wisdom.  

While Vaughan Luckman’s laid-back Orsino is not entirely convincing as a man poetically ‘in love with love’ and/or used to getting his own way, Alexis Jackson, as Olivia, allows passion and sensuality to seep seductively from beneath her widow’s weeds.

Pompous self-importance and self-love exude from every pore of Ross Young’s rich-voiced Malvolio but the all-important heights of ecstasy and depths of agony are not achieved (harsh, I know, but I am not the only one who tends to judge a Twelfth Night production by the amount of compassion we finally feel for the humiliated Malvolio).

Mind you, while I can see that using the outside dunny as ‘the dark house’ must have seemed like a good idea at the time, reducing Malvolio to voice and hand-gestures only, through the crescent moon cut in the dunny door, does conspire against our engaging with and feeling for him.

Todd Dixon is suitably soused as the alcoholic Sir Toby Belch and Andrew Clarke is a wonderfully Wildean Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Kirsty Hamilton takes Maria from stern housekeeper to co-carouser and conspirator with alacrity.

Making Feste, the clown and Olivia’s ‘fool’, the barman is inspired and Sam Hallahan makes the most of the opportunities. Catherine Croft’s Fabian completes the quintet of fun-seekers at Malvolio’s expense. Together they are a formidable and – yes – credible team of mischief-makers.  

Andrew Gunn as Sebastian and Hilary Penwarden as Antonio bring clarity and strength to the brother’s subplot, ensuring there is enough jeopardy towards the end to create the tension required to build the drama before the release of happy resolution.

Penwarden is joined by Bethany Miller, Cathy-Ellen Paul, Anna Neyland, Jessica Copland and Xanda Eves to fill out various scenes as moustachioed lords, simpering ladies, keystone-esque cops, a sea-captain and priest.  

These women and others in the cast sing songs of the era before the show and during the interval under the musical direction of musician Hannah Fraser, mostly too slow for my liking but beautifully all the same. They certainly set the mood exquisitely.

Mel Camp has cast this production extremely well. Along with the production and backstage team they ensure a highly enjoyable night at The Dell (or Old St Pauls if the weather cracks up). 

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