Play's a bard act to beat (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Play's a bard act to beat

9:13am Thursday 30th April 2009

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Twelfth Night
The Haymarket

DOLEFUL music, drunken capers and mistaken identities are afoot at The Haymarket this week in a production of Twelfth Night.

But through all their singing, dancing and cajoling, the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds’ production did not shy away from some of the darker themes in our celebrated Bard’s play.

Many of the multi-talented players doubled up their parts, most notably Oliver Senton who opens the play with the wistful sighs of Count Orsino before donning a wig of limp, flaxen hair and stripy breeches to play the moronic Sir Andrew.

It was not until the interval that I realised it was the same actor, so different are his mannerisms, and he is brilliantly funny as the idiotic Sir Andrew, commenting to the audience “He’s good, isn’t he?” as Feste sings a song.

Together Senton and Tim Frances, as Sir Toby Belch, perform some great physical comedy as they totter around the stage and hide behind bare branches as the conceited Malvolio is snared by Maria’s trick.

But the odd sinister aside from Frances makes it clear Sir Toby is ultimately a selfish, drunken sot who has no qualms about making his friend look a fool, go bankrupt or get hurt.

The cast pull together well but Eamonn O’Dwyer as Feste, the colourful jester, stands out as he crops up playing the guitar, oboe, tambourine and singing, all the while in character as the wise man playing a fool.

As for the women, Anna Hope plays quite a serious Olivia, and Amy Humphreys is feisty as the cross-dressing Viola, although she rushes some of her character’s most poetic lines as she courts the beautiful Olivia in her master’s place.

But Humphreys is particularly good at involving the audience in the action of this enjoyable production – something all the players do when their parts allow, speaking directly to individuals and even giving them wine in the case of Sir Toby.

Twelfth Night is at The Haymarket until Saturday. Tickets, from £16.50, with concessions available, can be booked at the Anvil Arts box office, on 01256 844244, or by visiting anvilarts.org.uk.

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