Twelfth Night review, Olivier

Twelfth Night is a gender-bending romp. A shipwrecked girl-twin dresses as a man and finds work with the Count Orsino. She falls for him, but he's in love with his neighbour, Olivia. Olivia is in chaste mourning for her dead brother, but when she meets the boy who is really a girl, her stays are suddenly loosened... Cue muddles, fuddle, and cuddles. Then the boy-twin turns up, which leads the girl's true identity to be revealed. At this point, each of the toffs takes the appropriate twin in marriage and they all live happily ever after.  That's the easy bit of Twelfth Night.

The odd bit is that the lovers' stories only top and tail Twelfth Night. The most interesting action happens in Olivia's Monty-Pythonesque court where her louche and indolent uncle, Sir Toby Belch, is drinking himself senseless with the vacuous visiting knight, Sir Andrew Aguecheek. It's the best and most enduring of double-acts, particularly in this slapstick production. As they pontificate events are moved along by, here, a female fool who sings like a dream. Meanwhile, Olivia's priggish advisor, Malvolio, is making things difficult for them all, so Belch decides to bring him down a peg by sending a fake love letter from Olivia. The letter asks Malvolio, who lusts after his boss, to wear comic yellow stockings with cross garters as a signifier of his affections.

Unusually in Simon Godwin's high octane production, Malvolio becomes Malvolia. This is not gender bending, it's a straight swap. By making Malvolio a woman, the playful humiliation of a pompous paternalistic prig becomes the brutalisation of a flawed and vulnerable woman. The casting of Tamsin Greig in the role is brilliant. Having sported a harsh demeanour throughout, at the moment of humiliation she reveals herself as a being that is yellowed from top to toe. What does this interpretation add to  Shakespeare's story?  I really have no idea, but it's clearly important to Godwin as it is Malvolia's destruction, not the lovers' happy ending, that dominates proceedings as the lights go down.

In conclusion: This is a brilliantly funny Twelfth Night with a chastening finale. There isn't a single duff performance. Magical moments are supplied by Tim McMullan's sexy Belch and Daniel Rigby as the red-haired pink-garbed pop-eyed Aguecheek. Tamara Lawrence is beautifully understated as Viola/Cesario, Phoebe Fox is a lively Olivia, and Doon Mackichan is a sexy fool. If you like the bard, it's a good night out.



Twelfth Night, Olivier Theatre, Royal National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1.  Run ends 13 May