Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

The Rector’s Company has just completed its first performance. The production of Twelfth Night was extremely well received, with some very satisfying feedback from our audiences. 

The whole cast produced performances that showed a real grasp of the play content, as well as, the comedy elements of the play. Cameron Baker (Viola/Cesario) had the challenging task of playing a woman playing a man. A role that he executed with some aplomb and a great deal of humour. Jonathon Hillas (I have promised to apologise for misspelling his name in the programme, so here it is, sorry) gave us a wonderfully loud and drunken Sir Toby Belch, with superbly audible delivery. Joshua Moss delivered the foolish knight with some gusto, and may, on occasion, have had some sympathy. These were début performances for Jonathon, Joshua and Matthew and they rose to the occasion. 

Jonathan Stone’s Feste was a delight of energy and comedy, raising the stakes and maintaining the pace, while Vealata Tongati’o demonstrated a truly engaging Maria, full of wit and invention. William Hince gave us an outstanding and elegant Olivia, exasperated with Orsino, disappointed with Sir Toby, horrified by Malvolio, eventually succumbing to Sebastian's charms, or was it Cesario. Eli Hancock was truly marvellous as Malvolio, giving true commitment to his part, at once fluent, expressive and flirtatious, a great comedic performance. Joshua Webster was a very suave Sebastian, eventually proving a far more believable object of Olivia’s desire than his sister, Viola - a difficult part, performed well. Matthew Wongchoti as Han Solo’s alter ego, Antonio, was a thoroughly convincing belligerent in defence of Sebastian/Cesario, a very strong performance. 

Morgan Bradley’s brief was to give us a hippy musician - so laid back as to be horizontal. Nick Dewhurst was a strongly voiced, powerful and dark Orsino, truly “In nature as in name”, who softens noticeably when he realises Cesario is a woman. Ethan Barratt had a difficult role to fulfil, Orsino’s gentleman, Valentine, and the officer arresting Antonio. On the one hand, Valentine knows that the news from Olivia will be painful to him, but he must be powerful to arrest Antonio.

 A good audience on opening night grew nightly as word of the performances spread, with a good number of very favourable comments.