Under Development
fiction….…"Over the past few weeks, Derby’s Guildhall theatre seems to have seen more Shakespeare than The Globe in London.
Following on from Derby Live’s professional production of Much Ado About Nothing, this week we get Derby Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. And if ever there were an example of the imperceptible differences between professional and amateur, we have it here at its finest.
As usual, Mr Shakespeare manages to string together a decent story with all of his normal plot devices, including mistaken identities and women dressed up as men, but this ensemble cast manages to get as much emotion, pathos and humour from the tale as possible.
Lisa Kelly shines as the countess Olivia, who falls for the charms of Cesario, the disguised, shipwrecked Viola (Nicky Beards), who in turn falls for the handsome Duke Orsino (Colin Dawes).
Matthews Shepherd and Swan create a fine comedy double act as the scheming and drinking Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek and Christopher Scott almost steals the whole show as Malvolio, Olivia’s manservant. When you can make an audience laugh with subtle facial nuances and, in a trice, play broad comedy to equally strong effect, then you know you have an ace in the deck.
Director Caroline Reader has set this production in Victorian Paris, but the open master-of-ceremonies’ speech, delivered, with aplomb by Alan Smith, seems to sit uneasily in that context. At other points, though, the music choices and live songs convey a sense of purpose and add much to the drunken songstress character of Feste, played by Irene Button.
This is another quality piece of work from one of the city’s prized amateur dramatic companies.
Andy Potter
Derby Evening Telegraph
WE went to see the Derby Shakespeare Company presentation of Twelfth Night and I've been going on about it so much ever since that the family suggested I write to you.
Twelfth Night was my O-level play and I must have seen over a dozen versions, amateur and professional. This was one of the best.
Incidentally, advice for anyone struggling currently with Shakespeare at school, stick with it. From my experience, it could give you repeated and varied enjoyment in theatres for as much as 60 years afterwards.
Earlier in the month, I went to see the current London production, which stars Sir Derek Jacobi and had rave national reviews – "as beautiful, touching and funny a Twelfth Night as London has seen in decades".
Now, I can confidently assure anyone who saw the Derby production and wished they could have managed to get down to London, you made the better choice for many reasons.
If you don't believe me, here are a few of them.
London had a vaguely Spanish setting which just seemed irrelevant. Derby's was full-blown 19th-century Parisian through and through, making a lot of sense out of the characterisations and the text.
I've never seen Feste, the Jester, played by a woman before but this blowsy old tart, all feathers and crimson make-up, was just right, especially when she passed out in a drunken heap with the song in the final moments of the play.
The highly-praised London stars, Malvolio and Viola, were matched by our local players, the Derby Sir Toby had more substance (in more ways than one) and the Duke was a great improvement.
There were things to criticise but only because this was an amateur production which otherwise reached the highest standards.
This was the first Derby Shakespeare production I have seen. I shall go to the next.
George Drury,
Heage Road,
Ripley.