Watched this last night. Loved every minute of it. Greg Doran has directed a very good play. The whole thing seemed to move at a very fast pace. It clocks in at bang on three hours. People are going to ask how was Richard Wilson. He was very good, but in my opinion it was James Fleet that stole the show. The set was simple but very good. Was surprised to see a few empty seats. I thought it would have sold out.

I saw this on Friday night too which was the second preview. Friends had seen it the Thursday night and there were a few changes, so it will be interesting to see it again on the final performance to see what they go with.

Having seen some 'tweets' from the RSC twitter stream from rehearsals mentioning the 'smells' of the play, I had been a bit confused as to how a play can smell....well all becomes clear and for me it brought an interesting other dimension to the play.

I thought Richard Wilson was very good (although there were moments when he was Victor Meldrew for me....although this may have been unavoidable)

I agree James Fleet was good although I thought that Guy Henry as Aguecheek in the Donmar version was better - he had me in stitches.

Richard McCabe, Nancy Carroll and Sam Alexander were all excellent though.

Richard McCabe is back - o joy of joys. I didn't realise this so thanks for telling us. I'm going to this just before it transfers to London.

I enjoyed this very much this evening. It wasn't the Malvolio Show that it was with Derek Jacobi for the Donmar production at the Wyndhams. If anything it was the Olivia Show as Alexandra Gilbreath was excellent and very funny. Of course I can quibble about one or two little interpretations but I loved the Turkish/English mix and the music [ and the smell] and as always Doran gets it all moving along and makes an ensemble of the actors.

I don't know why it received a luke warm reaction - like how much contemporary Hytner ish relevance and deep, dark stuff do you want in a Twelfth Night? There was plenty of darkness in Feste - I've not seen the ' Greek' insult so effective before - he is a loner, and doesn't belong to any of the subgroups in the play and has to fight for survival. The treatment of Malvolio is horrid as usual and Richard McCabe conveyed the emptiness of the joke very well.

McCabe super - carrying on from his magnificent Puck all those years ago in both conveying the reality on stage and connecting with the audience. He does Shakespeare good! There is one moment when he and James Fleet as Sir Andrew and Miltos Yerolemou, Feste, bgin a jazz riff that is worth the price of the ticket ..

I usually judge a Twelfth Night by how much I am moved by the ending and this one, yes, brought a tear to my eye: a credit to the writer since I've seen plenty of TNs but also a credit to this production. Go see, take Grandma, and the kids and you'll have a lovely time.

I saw this yesterday at the matinee and have to agree with Lynette...it was great fun and a nice zippy production. I thought the best performance of the night went to ALEXANDRA GILBREATH - Olivia who was so funny and commanded the stage whenever she was on it. Particularly good at yelling and her exasperation with those around her was a joy to behold!
Good production with a nice overall atmosphere and sets were very beautiful..I particularly liked the market scene where Malvolio briefly spots both Viola and Sebastian and is a little confused! The twins were very well cast...they really did look alike and in this I thought the production went one better than the Donmar West End production (where Viola could not really be mistaken for a man!). However I felt that the Donmar production made a better fist of the longing and attraction that built up between Viola and Orsino...in that production you could really believe that Orsino was rather relieved to discover that Viola was indeed a woman(!), whereas here his attraction to her at the end seems to come out of nowhere!
I liked the tree but found the wobbling a bit distracting...it looked like it might fall apart at any moment.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the performance of RICHARD MCCABE - Sir Toby Belch and although I had a few issues making out what James Fleet actually said (particularly when he was facing away from the audience) he provided excellent comic relief. The musical interlude when they were drunk was excellent entertainment!
Richard Wilson was fine but I have to say I preferred Derek Jacobi...I thought his reading of the letter was better. And his "smile" was priceless!
All in all an entertaining production, just right for Christmas!

Alexandra Gilbreath was magnificent. Amongst the best Olivia's I have ever seen. Richard Wilson played Victor Meldrew. I am not sure whether this is helpful to a play all about erotic transference. I felt he was not the Shakespeare Malvolio.

I am an admirer of Richard McCabe. His Toby Belch struck no chord with me. The cast did a competent job but in a great panoply of RSC Twelfth Nights to me this was nothing more than competent. Greg Doran is one of my favourite all time Shakespearian directors. It fell well below his admittedly exemplary standards. An ok night out

Ive never been to Stratford - but at the moment can't afford a weekly bus pass to get around manchester...maybe one day soon! - I love Twelfth Night as well :-(

Well this one is in London from beginning of December but probably well booked up. You coming down?

not planning on coming down till the new year!

It's booking until the end of February, if that helps:

http://www.ambassadortickets.com/1467/669/...-Twelfth-Night-

Good to hear nice things about this. I am taking a Canadian friend who's visiting to the first show in London before heading home for Christmas so I am pleased that the only turkey I'll be getting will be on Christmas Day.
(Apologies for the terrible pun, I'll get my coat... ;-) )

shameful...very shameful ;-)

Saw this on Thursday, very enjoyable, though I swear there is something about the Courtyard Theatre which makes me want to fall asleep (both in AYLI and this I nearly nodded off!). I'm tempted to buy a cheapo up-in-the-god's ticket for it's London run, just to see how the transfer from thrust to ProsArch is done.. I think I know how it's achieved but it'd satisfy my curiosity to see!

Interesting - always curious how they do that last scene especially on the proscenium cos limited angles. Sh must have done it like they do at the Courtyard in this production so at least half the audience can see the face of one twin. Don't you think? I loved the way they did it here.

Saw this on Monday, and enjoyed it immensely. I was one of the few people who didn't much like the Donmar version, but then I don't think I care that much for the play in general (heresy to some I know), I just find the Malvolio subplot too much.
I've made a clumsy attempt to put my thoughts down here http://oughttobeclowns.blogspot.com/2009/1...-night-rsc.html but am interested to know why those who love it think it is good.

Nice review. I agree the sub plot is tricky to bring off and I do find myself wishing the prison scene over quickly in all the productions I see. Perhaps we just don't 'get it' or have to take the trouble to link it in our minds with the arbitrariness of falling in love and deception of appearance theme blah blah. I'm one who wasn't bowled over by the Donmar, applesarenice; the previous Donmar with Simon Russell Beale, a few years back, as Malvolio was better, smaller but tighter and it brought out the sexuality of Malvolio, making it both funnier and more satirical on the Puritan stuff and the servant/mistress thing was better; it twas the season SRB did Uncle Vanya so brilliantly too.
What I did like about this RSC production was the setting which was fresh, the twins who were moving and Sir Toby, McCabe, who was certainly a reduced aristo and as you say the jazz riff a joy to behold. I think as a play it is harder to put on a good Twelfth Night than one of the less produced plays. The Comedy of Errors with its twins is easier, more simple comedy. And the overhearing scenes in Much Ado are usually even funnier. I sometimes think that there is another play buried in Twelfth Night, a tragedy; there is so much loss to make up for.

As I have said before, Trevor Nunn says this play is impossible to cast for the theatre these days as it has a large number of medium-size parts which all need very strong actors (so he made a film of it, which was awful). I was not wholly impressed by either Donmar version (Jacobi and Russell-Beale). The nearest to perfection I've seen so far was the one directed by Kenneth Branagh with Richard Briers (set at Xmas time, which is strangely rare).

OMG I thought it was far too long ago to mention but of course the Branagh version is iconic. I went miles to see it - Hammersmith I think! And I have the video somewhere. It was marvellous and memorable and had Anton lesser as Feste - chilling indeed.

Anything that has Anton Lesser in it is well worth seeing IMHO.

Yes. I think he was my first Hamlet (1982) - Jonathan Miller directing.

I'm very impressed that you can remember something from over 20 years ago, I can barely remember what I saw in January!

I thought this was very pedestrian, and listening to the comments of the audience at the interval and end I wasn't the only one.

Richard Wilson hardly raised a laugh which takes some doing - a failure of TV star casting for the RSC this time - Derek Jacobi streets ahead. Usual Doran "worthy" production with few ideas (I get the idea from interviews he had no great desire to do the play - he just did it because they cast Wilson). Feste incredibly tedious (an occupational hazard) and I'm pleased to say only about 20% of the audience participated in the pathetic "clap your hands in time to the music" interlude after the interval - if we'd wanted a panto we'd have gone elsewhere.

James Fleet very good - Olivia amusing too, in parts. Viola very feeble (made me remember how great Zoe Wannamaker was). Even the normally excellent McCabe couldn't do much when asked to make not one, not two, but three fart jokes amusing.

Jan Brock on the money as usual. It was a wretched production, unfunny, laborious, the absolute nadir being the clapping at the start of Part Two. Mind you the play itself is about the most over-rated play in the canon, after King Lear. I met someone who was at the Press Night and he thought the clapping was the cast, impromptu-like, taking the mickey out of the audience because they weren't laughing. Richard Wilson was just so awful, yet so pleased with himself.

Yes, the first half was so dismal, literally not a laugh in it, the clapping seemed not only embarrassing but also totally out of place.

I wonder why Wilson was so poor ? On paper it at least seemed plausible casting - my best guess is he was so daunted by the prospect of tackling Shakespeare for the first time in his life (at the age of 73), and of carrying the production as the star name, that it somehow knocked all the comic timing and talent out of him. Worst I have seen since Antony Sher's (self-admitted) total failure in the role.

On the way down to the Trafalgar Studios tonight at about ten past 7, saw Richard McCabe walking up to play his Sir Toby. Isn't that a bit late to get changed and so on? I thought actors were supposed to be in by an hour before curtain up. Is that wrong? Anyway, I waved and remembered the fart jokes - as you say, Jan, a bit of a challenge.

actors have to be at the theatre by the half (35 mins before curtain) - most actors tend to like an hour though to make sure they have a good warm up and are focused before the show!

Sir Toby is not on at the beginning though is he, so he had some more time.

Just incidentally, Sir Toby is the longest part in the play - not what I would have guessed.

doesn't matter all actors still have to be inside the building for the half!

Well, not for the RSC apparently. The production was just so lacklustre and tedious that I'm not surprised at him ".... creeping like snail unwillingly to school".

I share similar thoughts to you - though having not seen this production in London, I saw it at the Courtyard in Stratford.

Apparently, Doran approached Wilson years ago and asked him to do the part, then eventually Doran/RSC decided to do it and the promise was carried out. I admit, he wasn't the most comical Malvolio going.

James Fleet was one of the only gems in the production, he carried a lot of his comedy in his scenes in my opinion. The clapping after the interval was (in contrast) enjoyed by - or rather partaken in - around 80% of the audience. It was a good way to try to get the energy level up after the interval, and in this way worked, it presented an almost carnival type atmosphere for all of a couple of minutes.

All-in-all, I was glad to have seen it in order to say that I've seen it, but it wasn't a production I would have wanted to see a second time around.

That's not a blanket rule, usually so - however if it's known in advance by the Company/Stage Manager, it's sometimes allowed for a delay. Otherwise, the understudy goes on in most cases (giving them 30 minutes to ready for the role and costume-up).

Well if Mr McCabe had flown up the road he might have made the quarter.

Has anyone met Richard Wilson,if so whats he like?+where abouts do they go in? cause im not sure i was stood at the right door.

Anyone thats been,what time does the 7:30pm show finish? seeing it tommorow.

Anyone thats been,what time does the 7:30pm show finish? seeing it tommorow.

Not soon enough (a bit after 10:30pm).

wow thats later than i thought! thanx

Perhaps he moonlights in something else. According to the obituary in The Times, Griffith Jones used to be killed by Ian McKellen's Macbeth at the Donmar and head down to the Aldwych to give his Egeus. Which sounds highly unlikely to me though I hope it's true!

I have a vague memory something similar happened at NT one time. Anyway, thanks for reminding me of Griffith Jones - a great RSC stalwart - played every Old Man part there was.