AN INVENTIVE AND ENTERTAINING PRODUCTION THAT REALLY FOUND ITS STRIDE AFTER THE INTERVAL

By Madeleine Anderson ⭐⭐⭐ | Press Invite

On a summer evening, there are few more inviting places to watch Shakespeare than the lush green garden of the Actors’ Church in Covent Garden.

As daylight fades and the audience gathers beneath the bunting and trees, the setting promises the kind of enticing outdoor theatre that seems well suited to the mystery and gradual revealing of Twelfth Night.

Produced by Nonesuch Theatre, a company that tries to make Shakespeare accessible through playful, fast-paced productions, this staging embraced a contemporary sensibility without abandoning the spirit of the original. Their approach favours clarity, humour and audience engagement, even if not every creative choice landed with equal success.

This was an inventive and entertaining production that really found its stride after the interval. But at no point could I shake the sense that these were actors, acting.

The second half felt sharper, the pacing improved, and it passed by much more quickly as the comedy and emotional beats landed with greater confidence on stage.

The cast eagerly balanced the play’s shifts between sincerity and farce, although the wry self-awareness that framed some scene changes occasionally tipped into self-consciousness. Lady Olivia and Malvolia (Jericho Taylor and Chloe Orrock) were the standout performances, most successfully capturing the play’s themes of deceit, desire and comic confusion.

Audience participation was warmly encouraged, from cheering during a duel to singing along to an always-welcome acoustic rendition of a Chappell Roan song. While these moments were enjoyable, more subtle interaction woven naturally throughout the production would have made for a more cohesive show.

The venue itself also presented opportunities that were only partly realised. With the audience surrounding the action in the church garden, more imaginative use could have been made of actors arriving from and disappearing into different parts of the space. Likewise, the sounds drifting in from Covent Garden and the chiming church bells were acknowledged as interruptions rather than embraced. They could easily have been incorporated as comic business or even as moments that enriched the storytelling.

The physical humour was inventive and made good use of the limited space and simple staging available, nowhere more so than when Sir Andrew repeatedly clipped on and off stage astride a pretend horse.

The cast’s singing voices were soft and melodic, but they were often too gentle for the outdoor setting. I frequently found myself straining to hear both the songs and sections of the dialogue, which occasionally detracted from an otherwise lively performance.

Twelfth Night: A Nonsensical Medieval Romp was performed at Actors’ Church on Thursday 9 July.

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