Irish Times critic Helen Meany reviews Twelfth Night at the Olympia

Twelfth Night

Olympia Theatre

If music be the food of love, audiences at this Russian production are offered a banquet. The multi-talented ensemble from the International Chekhov Festival sing and dance their way through one of Shakespeare's most enduring comedies, creating the make-believe kingdom of Illyria on a bare stage, with the minimum of scenery and props.

The second production at this year's festival from Cheek By Jowl's director, Declan Donnellan, has a timeless clarity, both in its staging and its language (in subtitles), which reads more like a translation into English from Russian than the original text. While the elegant costumes suggest the 1930s, nothing about place or period is anchored very closely.

This is a realm of infinite leisure in which infatuation and love are the characters' main preoccupations: while the Duke Orsino pines for the lady Olivia, she sighs for Orsino's attendant Cesario, who is in fact a woman (Viola) and in love with Orsino. When Cesario/Viola's identical twin Sebastian turns up, Olivia pursues him with equal ardour.

Shakespeare's mockery of the blind obsessiveness of romantic love works at a number of levels: the fact that all the characters are played by men in this production adds further layers of ambiguity and levity, with gender being worn as lightly as identity, easily jettisoned if necessary.

Comedy rather than delicate feeling is emphasised here, through irresistibly appealing performances and brilliantly timed ensemble work. Great play is made of the sub-plot involving members of Olivia's household, and the humiliating trick played on her servant Malvolio. The vodka-swilling, below-stairs antics of Sir Toby Belch, Andrew Aguecheek and Feste the Fool are given full-blooded Russian treatment, reminiscent of the late-night drinking scenes from Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.

The more wistful, melancholy notes of the play have been banished and even Feste's songs have lost their pathos: "Hey Ho the Wind and the Rain" is performed as a celebration of happy endings by the entire cast. While Nick Ormerod's set design does hint at the play's contrasting moods, switching from black to white halfway through like a photographic exposure, the prevailing tone is of pure light.

Helen Meany