There can't be a better place to see Shakespeare's plays than Stratford upon Avon. As you walk across the park through the trees along the river towards the RSC's home you can't help reflect that this beautiful town was his birthplace and a perfect historical home for his plays. The Royal Shakespeare theatre reopened in 2010 with a complete remodelling of the interior into a thrust stage creating a more intimate space and it provides an excellent setting for this production of Twelfth Night.
The sumptuous set is designed by Simon Higlett and draws inspiration from the Arts and Craft movement, the art of Audrey Beardsley and William Morris and creates a strong Victorian period feel. This is intermingled with period influences from Oscar Wilde, Queen Victoria's servant Abdul and Gilbert and Sullivan. In this context the transposition of the play from Illyria to a country house in Victorian England works with Feste, Viola and Sebastian becoming Indian servants, Orsino an artist and Malvolio, at times a character from comic opera. The whole setting is enhanced by Tim Mitchell's subtle atmospheric lighting and Nigel Hess's music.
