TWELFTH NIGHT

Tue 13 - Sat 17 December 2005 at 7.30pm
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Sheep Street, Northampton

Photo gallery

William Shakespeare’s comedy has all the elements of confusion, shipwreck, disguise, romance, folderol and ‘what you will’.

But just to dismiss it as that is not fair on Shakespeare’s play.

True, the misfortunes of identical twins keeps us as amused today as a theme from ancient Greek drama and Shakespeare probably ‘borrowed’ most of his plot from Barnabe Rich’s prose narrative Of Aplonius and Silla published in 1581 (although in that version Viola deliberately disguises herself to persue the Duke).

We learn much from this play about the frailties of human nature as well as the ‘tricks’ we play on ourselves.

Twelfth Night was also probably initially performed under its subtitle - What You Will - to Queen Elizabeth in 1599 before the earliest recorded performance of Twelfth Night for the Middle Temple in 1602.

Nor would the fool’s name, Feste, be lost on an audience who would understand it as the contemporary French for fete.

There'll be plenty of confusion going on when the Masque Theatre company performs Twelfth Night in an historic setting next week.

A girl disguised as a boy is just the start of the misunderstandings in Shakespeare’s festive comedy.

The lovesick Duke, Orsino is wooing the Lady Olivia, but she’s falling for servant Cesario -who is the shipwrecked Viola in disguise — who in turn is in love with the Duke.

Confused yet?

Adding to the merriment are the drunken Sir Toby Belch, foolish Sir Andrew Aguecheek and the clown Feste, who makes a fool of sour steward Malvolio by tricking him into believing the Lady Olivia is actually in love with him.

It’s not so much of a love triangle as a hexagon - and who knows what will happen when Viola’s twin brother Sebastian turns up?

But, knowing Shakespeare, there’s sure to be a happy ending.

Throw in a band of 17th Century musicians and a handful of songs, and the show is set to be the perfect Winter warmer for the festive season.

This production is directed by Rob Kendall. He has also directed: Bent (2004), Hell Cab (2004), Murder in the Cathedral (2002), A View From The Bridge (2002), Entertaining Mr Sloane (2000), East (1998), A Streetcar Named Desire (1997) and Antony and Cleopatra (1996)