“All is fortune,” Malvolio announces in Shakespeare’s fabulously OTT rom-com Twelfth Night. It's hard not to agree, now that theatres are finally lit up bright once more. Consider us pumped for this latest take, staged at Sydney's New Theatre between January 6 to 26.
A kooky classic about disguised identity and falling for the true spirit of a soul, it partly inspired the gender-swapping hijinks of the beloved Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes-led movie Shakespeare in Love. And if you think you’ve seen it all before, think again, because even the players don’t know exactly what’s going to happen on the night. As wrangled into creative shape by adventurous local production company Virginia Plain, this new staging, helmed by director and designer Victor Kalka, rests on the toss of a coin. Quite literally.
A cast of twelve – including Eleni Cassimatis, Ben Chapple Lucinda Howes, Sarah Greenwood and Harry Winsome – have each learned two parts, and the way the silver lands on the night determines which roles they will be playing.
Who knows who will take on beloved twins Viola and Sebastian? Shipwrecked and washed onshore in the land of Illyria, where music is the food of love and anything is possible, each thinks the other is lost to this world. And who will be Olivia, falling for a Viola, the latter disguised as a man to safeguard herself? Whatever way it works out on the night, you can be sure this new look at a cherished classic will celebrate the core themes of identity, sexuality and the vagaries of fate.