Gender confusion causes upset and hilarity in equal measure

Demetri Goritsas as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Joplin Sibtain as Sir Toby Belch, Daniel Millar as Fabian in Twelfth Night. Photo by Helen Murray.

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 18 January 2025.

Review by Charles Barker.

Shakespeare knew all about cross-dressing. After all, in his day, women weren’t allowed to act on stage, so men had to play the female roles. You can imagine him chuckling as he wrote Twelfth Night with all its gender confusion and mistaken identities causing upset and hilarity in equal measure.

So here you have a woman disguised as a man, falling for a man who loves a woman, who in turn falls for the disguised man. Do keep up. And in that extra real-life twist, Shakespeare (and his audience) knew that the actors on stage were all men, some pretending to be women.

Talk about sexual and gender ambiguity!

Michael Grady-Hall as Feste in Twelfth Night. Photo by Helen Murray.

This triumphant production brings all that out beautifully and subtly, thanks largely to some outstanding performances.

But to go back to the start – Viola and her identical twin brother Sebastian survive a shipwreck but are separated, and each thinks the other has died. Washed up on Illyria, the resourceful Viola disguises herself as a man (Cesario) to join the court of Duke Orsino. The Duke tasks Cesario (Viola) with wooing for him the woman he loves, Olivia, who has been rebuffing his advances.

 The stage is now set for confusion. Cesario (Viola) falls for her employer the Duke. Olivia falls for Cesario (Viola).

The Duke is unsettled. He can’t understand why he’s strangely attracted to the slightly feminine young man Cesario (Viola). Olivia is beside herself – she can’t understand why Cesario (Viola) won’t / can’t return her affections.

Feema Agyeman as Olivia in Twelfth Night. Photo by Helen Murray.

You won’t be surprised that the confusion ratchets up another notch when the missing brother Sebastian turns up. But again, no spoiler alert necessary - eventually all is revealed, and all is resolved.

Meanwhile, in a sub-plot, the sexual shenanigans continue as Olivia’s pompous butler Malvolio is the victim of a cruel prank by the dissolute Sir Toby Belch and his friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek. They persuade Malvolio that Olivia secretly loves him and since he’s long had a thing for her, he’s easily convinced. After much bawdy drunkenness, the straitlaced Malvolio sadly ends up in a straitjacket.

Samuel Weston as Malvolio in Twelfth Night. Photo Helen Murray.

It’s no wonder that Twelfth Night is one of the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays – genuinely funny, sometimes descending into farce, yet also suggestive of how difficult it can be to navigate the path to true love – and this production, directed by Prasanna Puwanarajah, is a stunning success. The stage is simple, dominated by a huge organ, the presence of which is never explained, but the  elements of farce are all there – characters rush off in one direction, to appear unexpectedly from another, swinging doors trapping noses, even a couple of keystone cops trying to untangle the knotty relationships. It’s all great fun.

The music, composed by Matt Maltese is discrete and wonderful, and the performances are all excellent. Special mentions to Freema Agyeman as Olivia, Joplin Sibtain as Sir Toby, Samuel West as Malvolio, and Michael Grady-Hall outstanding as Feste the clown, Olivia’s jester, the fool who is in fact the wisest character of all, exposing the fickleness of others. A brilliant comic performance.

Don’t miss it.

For tickets and further details go to: https://www.rsc.org.uk/twelfth-night