Until Sat Jan 31, 7.15pm, Thu 1.30pm, Sat 2.15pm, Theatre Royal, Hope Street, Glasgow, (pounds) 5-(pounds) 18.50, 0141 332 9000
Dundee Rep's production of Shakespeare's pithiest of comedies was a perfect introduction to the theatre's new regime of Dominic Hill and James Brining. The pair clearly aim to build on the scope afforded by having a permanent acting ensemble which was instigated by the previous management. Big plays need big casts, after all, and while Twelfth Night is hardly Shakespeare's most epic work, it nevertheless requires a level of onstage intimacy which familiarity can only accentuate.
Director Hill sets proceedings in a tumbledown surrealist dreamscape that looks not unlike a Monarch of the Glen holiday retreat. Here, thwarted couple Orsino and Viola plunder the dressing up box to indulge in loves confused, confounded, or else unrequited.
All good clean fun in what's largely a high-farce romp led by John Bett as Sir Toby Belch, the bleach-blond, nice-but-dim Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Thane Bettany's Feste, who form a triple act straight out of a more booze-sodden Last of the Summer Wine.
For all its japery, however, a prevailing air of melancholy lingers in a work of quiet audacity, where sexual
subversion rules the day.
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