Twelfth Night
★★★☆☆ Droll
Saughton Park: Wed 25 – Sat 28 June 2025
Review by Rebecca Mahar
The Forth Act return to Saughton Park with another helping of outdoor Shakespeare, transporting the Illyria of Twelfth Night to a beach town in the summer of 1967.
One of Shakespeare’s enduring comedies of mistaken identity, Twelfth Night centres around the story of Viola (Rhona O’Donnell), shipwrecked off the coast of Illyria.
Believing that her identical twin brother Sebastian (Scott Adair-Grabas) has perished in the wreck, and with no means at her disposal, Viola assumes the male identity of Cesario, and takes up a place as a servant in the household of Duke Orsino (Finlay Allan).
Cosette Bolt and Rhona O’Donnell. Pic: Andrew Morris Photography
Orsino is attempting to court the noblewoman Olivia (Cosette Bolt), who is entirely uninterested — in him, at least; when “Cesario” arrives to plead the Duke’s case, Olivia falls for him immediately. Of course.
Other shenanigans are afoot in Olivia’s household. Her lady-in-waiting Maria (Kate Stephenson), uncle Sir Toby Belch (Chris Young), and hanger-on Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Michael Stephens) are plotting together with Orsino’s fool, Feste (Irena Komunjer), to humiliate Olvia’s somewhat pompous steward, Malvolio (Wag).
decidedly not-dead
When a decidedly not-dead Sebastian and the captain who rescued him, Antonio (Jen Ward), who is wanted by the Duke, turn up, everything naturally goes to, well, hell.
Rhona O’Donnell, Finlay Allan and Flora Henderson. Pic Andrew Morris Photography
Forth Act’s rendition of Twelfth Night is charming, and generally manages the threads of its sub-plots well. Unfortunately, the cut of the script has eliminated some of these, and blurs some of the detail of the primary story. This results in a version that feels choppier and more rushed in its love stories than the original, which is already one of Shakespeare’s most archetypical plays of lightning-strike love.
loud and lively
The concept of setting the play in 1967 certainly allows for delightfully loud and lively costuming choices from Gill Daniell (assisted by Mary Keegan and Lynne Morris). The music too is full of period appropriate thematic selections (with additional original music by Jingswag), but these choices seem to be as far as the concept goes: there is no evident reason behind the setting other than that it’s fun.
Scott Adair-Grabas and Jen Ward. Pic Andrew Morris Photography
Performances are good throughout the company, evidencing solid text work and clear understanding of character and relationships. However, the production lacks energy overall. While some individuals work hard to maintain forward drive within their parts, direction from Helen Schofield has not insisted quite enough on the picking up of cues and the sparing use of well-earned pauses. Silence frequently intrudes, robbing lines of their impact, comedy of its opportunity, and pace from every scene.
a solid effort
With a great deal of tightening, this show could be excellent; as it is, it is a solid effort at a difficult play, with moments of hilarity and real pathos. Its staging makes great use of the Sunken Garden at Saughton Park, continuing Forth Act’s tradition of seeking out interesting, familiar spaces in the community and tailoring their shows to them. Playing heavily into the droll delight of the play, Twelfth Night is an entertaining night of open-air midsummer madness.
Running time: Two hours and forty minutes (including one interval)
Saughton Park (Sunken Garden), Balgreen Road, EH11 3BQ
Weds 25 – Sat 28 June 2025
Evenings: 7pm; Sat mat: 2pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
The Forth Act links
Website: www.theforthact.scot
Facebook: @TheForthAct
Instagram: @TheForthAct
Bluesky: @theforthact.bsky.social
Wag, Chris Young and Kate Stephenson. Pic Andrew Morris Photography
ENDS
Comments
Suzanne Senior says
(June 28, 2025)I thought this production was a real joy, from start to finish, and it was a great advert for outdoor theatre on a sunny, if somewhat windy, afternoon. I loved the acting, and the Sixties setting provided the opportunity for so much fun, for the audience as well as the cast. The costumes were very inventive and colourful, in true Sixties style.
I particularly liked the reference to ‘The Prisoner’ Sixties TV series in Malvolio’s costume, especially as the character was the epitome of cool, and Malvolio is anything but that! Also, Olivia’s dress, taken straight from a Mondrian painting, was a clever touch, and the matching psychedelic costumes of the twins Viola and Sebastian were just right.
The Sixties soundtrack was inspired, each song chosen for the apt nature of its lyrics in a particular scene. The actress who played Feste sang beautifully as well. Also, the casting of some females in male parts was spot on. All in all, this was a perfect afternoon’s entertainment.
