Have appreciated Shakespeare's work for a long time. 'Twelfth Night' was one of my first Shakespeare plays. Actually along with 'Macbeth' it was the play that introduced me to and got me into his plays, through reading the text out loud in English class, while analysing the language as we went along. As a young adult, it's still one of my favourites of his. The story is complicated but lots of fun and charming, it has heart, memorable characters and moments and a lot of quotable lines.
This production for me was underwhelming. It definitely has good things and does succeed in one part of the mix of comedy and drama, complete with mostly fine performances. It also does have drawbacks and just felt overblown and bland, as well as failing in the other part of the aforementioned mix. There is an earlier production of 'Twelfth Night' from the Globe, with Mark Rylance as Olivia, which in my mind was vastly superior.
As said, there are good things here in this 'Twelfth Night'. It does boast very good performances from most of the cast, with Sir Toby and Sir Andrew being very funny. Viola is charming and ardent, and not only is she believable as a man she and Sebastian are believable as siblings. The comedy largely succeeds, especially with Sir Toby and Sir Andrew which is a riot without being too broad.
Shakespeare's dialogue always shines. The costumes and settings are easy on the eye and did like the photography's intimacy.
On the other hand, there are drawbacks. There is too much emphasis on music, the music itself is fun on its own but there is too much of it and it's too stage musical like. The way it's staged veers into overblown excess. There is also nowhere near as much of the melancholy, that makes the drama so poignant. Meaning that Olivia is bland, the romantic relationships under-explored and the heart of the play lost.
While most of the comedy is very funny and well timed, other parts are too broad and silly. Especially with Malvolio. There are exceptions to the cast, Olivia is bland from having too little to work with and Malvolio comes over as too much of a fool (admittedly the character is one in the first place but it feels overkill here).
In conclusion, watchable but very uneven. 5/10.
