Timothy Sheader’s vision of Illyria is a forgotten Spanish colonial outpost in the 18th century, an island of misrule beset by buccaneers, where anything can happen and often does, including a date palm shedding a fine crop of bananas as Desmond Barrit’s boozy Toby Belch and his cronies spy on the gulling of Malvolio.
The romantic focus is on Sirine Saba’s gorgeously sexy Olivia, a cheroot-puffing Condesa in black lace who comes wonderfully into her own in the manly arms of James Millard’s Sebastian, both bringing a starry, steamy presence to the evening.
Her Olivia is also on kissing cousin terms with Simon Day’s Feste, an exotic, voodoo figure whose tenor version of “Hey, ho…” (in a new setting by Corin Buckeridge) beguiled an audience shivering at the end of a chilly press night.
Mariah Gale is strongly centred as Viola grieving for the loss of her brother, cheekily aiming a flying kick at the rump of Daniel Flynn’s grumpy Orsino when disguised as Cesario, while her poignant ‘willow cabin’ speech is a vocal standout.
Another comes from Martin Jarvis as Malvolio, winning a personal round for his witty handling of the letter scene, then splendidly idiotic in toreador togs - designer Jessica Turner’s cleverly effective solution for the ‘cross-gartered yellow stockings’ problem.
Another strong presence is Harriet Thorpe’s Maria as his nemesis, here getting off Scot free in the final tableau while James Loye offers a compact scholarly edition of the usually towering beanpole Aguecheek.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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