So I realise that a lot of my theatre trips tend to be 5* but that's generally because I only go to the best of course (!!!) and when it comes to Shakespeare, and Shakespeare at the Globe really is the best because it is an experience.
If you haven't been to The Globe yet, and you can visit just to see the place not just to see a show, I can highly recommend it. Built on (or as close as they could get to) the original site of The Globe in 1580's and using as much historical evidence about playhouses at the time, including The Globe's rivals The Rose, and The Swan, they have managed to construct a building that closely replicates the sights and sounds you would have heard and plays you would have seen during Shakespeare's lifetime. If you are lucky enough (!) to get a seat in The Globe you will be seated on uncomfortable wooden stalls that may require the extra purchase of a cushion. Or if you are truly lucky you can replicate the tradition of being a groundling, someone who paid a small fee (£5 for us today) to stand and see the play from right in front of the stage. I highly recommend this option if you can stand for long periods of time (not advisable for 4 hour plus plays!!) as you really get into the action and up close and personal with the characters. But do dress warmly, wherever you sit/stand, as the theatre is open air and does get cold, and often the odd plane passing overhead!
But what about the play itself. Well Twelfth Night happens to be one of my favourite Shakespeare plays and I was very very lucky to be offered a spare ticket to see it (thank you so much!!) especially as this was the first play that Stephen Fry would be appearing in for over 10 years AND it was a traditional all male cast.... YES.... ALL MALE!! So the genius of doing this play is that you have men, or really boys playing girls pretending to be boys!! And to be honest, it was the men playing women (Olivia, Maria etc) who were definitely the stars of the show.
Mark Rylance who played Olivia glided across the stage in his/her full black gown. Comic timing was brilliant and the girly reactions to falling for Cesario, the boy playing a girl playing a boy, were fantastic. And Maria, as played by Paul Chahidi, had a certain element of Monty Python about him/her that added deviousness and a sinister style to a brilliantly cast and executed character. Stephen Fry was, as always, Stephen Fry. He has such a way about him that he is so naturalistic in his acting you really felt he was the part not an actor in a play. Taking on the role of Malvolio, it was played rather differently to the familiar Trevor Nunn film which saw Nigel Hawthorne in that role. Hawthornes Malvolio you did want to see revenge thrust upon whereas Fry's, you actually felt a little sorry for him and his naivety.
I wasn't the biggest fan of Count Orsino. I have always imagine him slightly younger than played but he came into his own at the end which was good. He does too open the show with 'If music be the food of love' speech and I wasn't utterly convinced of his love sickness and current emotional state. The comic duo of Sir Agucheek (as played by Trigger from Only Fool and Horses - who has incredibly thin legs!)and Sir Toby Belch were mischievous in their drunken nature and provided many a laugh and a song were great to watch, but as said before it was really the women... well men playing women... who shone throughout.
Lots of laughs to be had, a love story and a case of mistaken identity and of course a happy ending for all - well nearly!
Now although Twelfth Night has now finished at The Globe, the production will be moving to The Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue from mid November so I would highly recommend going to see it. Yes the venue will be different but the performance was extremely entertaining and brilliantly executed and well worth seeing if you can get a ticket!!
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