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Twelfth Night	[print]
The Nomadic Players
Drwm, National Library of Wales
February 1, 2005
I have to confess to some trepidation in attempting to write a review of a Shakespeare production. How to avoid cliché or repeating some tired old platitude about the nature of the drama, threatens to crush my enthusiasm for either the play or the performance. We also live in an age that is constantly questioning the value of Shakespeare’s place on the curriculum – his plays no longer, it is argued, have meaning or significance for the young. Such is the responsibility, the millstone of the Shakespearian production. In such a climate how much more difficult must it be to stage Shakespeare? I hope, in the light of these reflections, that none of the company of Nomadic Players will think me at all patronising if I suggest that I was enormously exhilarated by their choice of Twelfth Night as a suitable tribute and memorial to a friend of the cast. Here was a group of young actors prepared to counter the prevailing cultural pessimism; prepared to say, this is Shakespeare and we love it, and we know what he means. The abiding memory of The Nomadic Players’ performance, which took place at the National Library of Wales Y Drum, on 31st January and 1st February, was their infectious enthusiasm for the language and their ability to discover and share meaning and relevance. Twelfth Night is, of course, a play about love. But it is a mistake to see that expressed only in the pairs of lovers who come together to provide the expected comic closure. This is a play that explores love in all its variety. At the beginning of the play Orsino is a man in love with the idea of love, Viola and Olivia show us what it is to love a brother, Antonio displays friendship’s love – a particular brand of love that Shakespeare was never afraid to confront - Sir Andrew shows us feigned friendship and love, and, of course, Malvolio is immersed in self-love. The world of the play is suffused in love and yet it is full of discord. What we discover through the play is the way in which love does not solve problems but creates them. Love we are instructed is not necessarily the answer (as Orsino the romantic would have it) but the currency, the dynamic of social interaction. Under the direction of John Trevor-Allen and Patrick Cooper, the Nomadic Players declined the pull of finding the plays focus in a few central characters and took the much more challenging route. The production wasn’t without its problems. Having found a venue at the very last minute, and Y Drwm doesn’t offer a great deal of space let alone scope, it was a mistake to stick to the props that had served through rehearsals. There were some very awkward gaps when the stage hands brought back or removed a set of chairs to indicated different locations. Better to have given them up and trusted wholly to the language and the actors’ conviction. Such interruptions did disturb the rhythm of the performance but it is to the actors’ credit that they usually manage to recover the momentum without too much difficulty – but that shouldn’t have been necessary. The decision to set the play in ‘The Jazz Age’ also seemed to have been superfluous, so little did it influence anything: except to provide some occasional and rather disconcertingly loud period music. Again, this was probably the result of sticking to an early directorial decision that proved unworkable given the limitations of the venue. I offer these comments as an indication of mild disappointment rather than any serious misgivings. The production was a successful and sometimes moving event. Eleanor Stourton’s Viola conveyed an effective tenderness and compassion. She loved Orsino but she understood Olivia – and showed how flatteringly seductive that can be. Lizzie Bowen’s Olivia in contrast was more assertive. For her, love was a very physical affair and the interplay of these two provided plenty of humour; something we more generally associate with the goings on below stirs. There, Kevin Bales’ Sir Toby Belch seemed to be somewhat overwhelmed by Colin Adams-Toomey’s Sir Andrew Aguecheek. If the stated decision to ‘play it for laughs’ come unstuck at all, it was in that relationship. But, as I have suggested, it seemed to me to be very well balanced in terms of characterisation. The world of the play was just that, a world peopled by individuals. Two performances do need to be singled out for special comment, however; Patrick Cooper’s Malvolio and Rachel Crane’s Feste. In a play that is considered a comedy, the role of the fool seems to me to be a something of a problem – very little of what Feste does or says is remotely amusing to a modern audience. Rachel Crane, however, managed at times to shift the comic charge from language to gesture, which, along with her original music and powerful voice gave the role an added dimension and significance. As for Patrick Cooper’s performance, it was a gem. The role has plenty of comic potential, of course, but Cooper’s Malvolio was also sour and overly conscious of his intelligence and seriousness. When he fancies himself in love he is playful and embarrassingly over-familiar and when he is locked away, his mournful voice managed to be both petulant and indignant. Twelfth Night is a play that is challenging in its demand for pace. In it Shakespeare displays his genius for throwing his characters on stage, changing their identities and sending them off again for yet more startling encounters. The Nomadic Players’ production, despite the added difficulties of the space, rose to that challenge and seemed to me to have a firm grasp of the comic potential of a world turned upside down by love and mischief.
Trisha Rhodes
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Amateur theatre and drama reviews - Twelfth Night

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