TWELFTH NIGHT
Globe Theatre.
Press night: 6 and 10 August.
Shakespeare’s comedy of mistaken identity, music and the madness of love, Twelfth Night, finds new life in the Globe Theatre for their Summer 2021 season.
Illyria is a society in limbo, held captive by loss. Until a sea-drenched stranger arrives and unexpectedly unleashes the chaotic and transformative power of love.
Our critic described is as "a production that is full of music and delight." Read the full review now.
What did other critics make of the show?
Critic Reviews:
The Guardian ★★★★☆
Every comic character is clearly drawn and expertly played. A swaggering and sometimes staggering Sir Toby Belch (Nadine Higgin) comes on with a crate of beer. Andrew Aguecheek (George Fouracres) is a fantastic idiot in pastel colours and a cravat. Victoria Elliott’s wise clown, Feste, is whip-smart and nimble, albeit with a too soft singing voice that doesn’t carry above the orchestra. Sophie Russell plays Malvolio as an understated puritan until bursting into his awful comic incarnation in a yellow body-sock. All are genuinely funny with excellent comic timing, and bring out the full effects of a text that is stuffed full of double meanings and dexterous language.
The Telegraph ★★★★☆
If music be the food of love, there’s a veritable feast at Sean Holmes’s rollicking medley of a production. Although some serious notes are struck, particularly by Michelle Terry as an impassioned Viola, Holmes’s Twelfth Night – like his Midsummer Night’s Dream, which reopened the Globe in May – is primarily a caper, and one that ably blends bluegrass, Cher and Tina Turner with Shakespeare’s comedy of mistaken identities.
The Times (paywall) ★★★☆☆
A playful, cross-dressing exploration of mistaken identity.
i ★★★★☆
A superb production suffused with longing
WhatsOnStage ★★★☆☆
Seeing Michelle Terry as Viola brings to mind thoughts of her predecessor as Globe artistic director, Mark Rylance, in the same play (as Olivia). What strikes me most is how Rylance seemed the understated anchor in an ebullient production, whereas Terry brings focus and energy to a staging that sometimes lacks momentum.
This is surprising seeing how director Sean Holmes' Midsummer Night's Dream – which also runs at the same address this summer – is such a riot of colour and comedy. Twelfth Night is given a more delicate touch, one that shows plenty of pathos but could do with a little more punch.
