I thought this was a great production. So good, in fact, that I went to see it twice, and took my two teenaged children the second time. They thoroughly enjoyed it too, it made Shakespeare exciting and accessible for them. It was funny, it was dark, and it was extremely moving at the end. - MelO
30 Sep 12
We were very disappointed with this production, we both found the actors very difficult to hear. Poor scenery compared to previous productions. The legroom on our seats J55/54 was so bad that we had to sit sideways. Such a badexperience overall that we left at the interval.. Thank goodness we had an excellent meal in the restaurant. - Iris
08 Sep 12
I could not disagree more with some of the comments here. This was a rollicking performance with clever staging and excellent acting. I found it genuinely entertaining! - Katy Dunn
03 Aug 12
This was a very disappointing production. The acting was mediocre, lines were difficult to hear, delivered at a pace which was difficult to follow. I have been going to Stratford since 1947 as my sister used to act here and her husband was a designer and it was the most disappointing production I have ever seen there. The amount of brutality was not in keeping with the elements of comedy this play normally produces. It was a thoroughly miserable evenings entertainment. - Carol Liggins
22 Jul 12
As a former drama director, I found this to be a very disappointing production. I waited 50 years to see " the real thing" ! It was too dark for a comedy, and the actors were very difficult to understand. The set and lighting were very creative. What a shame that the rest of the elements were not as well done. It is certainly acceptable to change the time period of the plays,but torture, executions, and violent soldiers seem to be a bit much in this interpretation. - Sheri Brodrick
17 Jul 12
There were a lot of empty seats at the Roundhouse, possibly due to overkill - this was my fifth Twelfth Night in the last 2-3 years. Over familiarity can lead to becoming hyper-critical and there were several areas where I did not agree with David Farr's directorial choices; Ilyria seemed to be a run-down hotel presided over by an Olivia resembling Lillith from Cheers / Frasier; Feste was almost interchangeable with Sir Toby Belch; you really had to stretch to believe that Sebastian and Viola could be confused for each other and some of the acting was not what you would expect from the RSC, with a particularly underwhelming Orsenio. Jonathan Slinger was a magnificently reptillian Malvolio and his appearance in hideously fetishist cross garters reduced the party of teenagers to very noisy hysterics. Unfortunately it meant that the dungeon scene and his final chilling promise of revenge was also greeted with laughter. However, the play's the thing and despite those reservations Twelfth Night provided its usual superb entertainment. As well as Slinger's great performance Kirsty Bushell was a lovely and amusingly ditsy Olivia and I was gradually won over by Bruce MacKinnon's unusually young Andrew Aguecheek. I was a couple of seats away from Greg Doran and I wish I had had the chance to talk to him about the RSC's policy on London transfers. We get far too many of the plays which are frequently seen in other London theatres (Much Ado, Comedy of Errors, Shrew, Tempest, etc) instead of the less common productions which seem to be limited to Stratford. Give London a chance to see King John, Cymbeline and especially Rupert Goold's Merchant of Venice.
- David Baxter
29 Jun 12
I found this rather dark interpretation very convincing - and very Elizabethan: surely truer to the spirit of the sixteenth century than the usual flat, bright, merely slapstick version. Recommend seeing it in combination with the Duchess of Malfi, as I did, for a real immersion in a world much more visceral and morally ambiguous than we like to tolerate nowadays. I agree with the criticisms of the pacing. The rapid-fire delivery of the lines pushes the pace of the action effectively, but it lacks aesthetic appeal, and in some cases the lines are actually unintelligible. Nevertheless, I found the performance vastly satisfying - richly comic with disturbing undercurrents. - M. Buchmann
07 Jun 12
Disappointing experience. The sight of "waterboarding", electric shock torture and prisoners being strung up sits very uneasily with one of Shakespeares brightest comedies. The acting was not brilliant either. The two Dromios apart, I thought some of the the acting lacked conviction,with lines being delivered at such a pace as to make them unintelligible at times ;much preferred the BBC version with Roger Daltrey and Michael Kitchen.
ps: perhaps I was not in the best frame of mind, seated behind one of those adorable iron girder pillars in Stratford's hugely expensive theatre - Anthony Atkinson
16 May 12
In preview (21 April) Jonathan Slinger was excellent. Let down by a Viola who completely missed the character's humour - an appalling casting error. Quite agree that this Olivia (Kirsty Bushell) is superb - a much harder role than Viola yet she steals the play. Also highly rated Felix Hayes and Bruce MacKinnon. Set design clever but dreary and direction clever but lacking warmth. Disappointing. - Carrie
02 May 12
Having seen several 'Tempests' over the years, for Prospero and Ariel alone, this was one of the best...powerful and very moving. - CB
28 Apr 12
The plot of Twelfth Night fell apart because of the casting. The twins, Sebastian and Viola are supposed to be virtually identical in appearance. nobody could confuse these two , Sebastian is more than a head taller, Viola is completely unconvincing as a youth. Orsino is no effete aristocrat either. For me the production lacked the melancholy and charm one would expect. - Val Mott
28 Apr 12
A very mixed bag. Unlike your reviewer, I thought Slinger's Malvolio was excellent (your reviewer's concern with his costume is silly). Toby Belch, Aguecheek, and Feste were sublimely funny. The problems came in the main plot. Emily Taaffe was unbelievably amateurish as Viola, completely devoid of emotional depth or resonance, and without a sense of humor. Orsino was manic and shouty: it was impossible to see what Viola saw in him, and there was no chemistry between them. Sebastian was even worse, and his relationship with Antonio meant nothing. And so on. It felt as though all the rehearsal time had been focused on the comic subplot (which fortunately was strong enough to carry the play), with no attention paid to the lovers. Bizarre. - DW
27 Apr 12
Of the three plays I saw in Stratford last week (including Richard III and Twelfth Night), this was by far the strongest: an uncommonly solemn, beautiful, deeply felt production. Slinger was superb, his interaction with Ariel sublime. I've seen at least a dozen Tempests in the last 25 years, and this was one of the most interesting and moving. Loved it. - DW
27 Apr 12
this is not what I saw! or why some didn't return to their seats after the interval. poor productions not worthy of RSC, Slingers delivery meaningless in the first half particularly, indistinct, mis match costuming, miss match stylistically, amateurish acting in parts, Miranda and Ferdinand no emotional connection in any way, wooden and screechy , kings party awful, comic duo are brilliant however. Outstanding it certainly is not! - anne
