Twelfth Night

Trevor Nunn's gorgeous-looking interpretation of Shakespeare's gender-bending comedy of manners re-positions it temporally in the mid-19th century and sets it amongst some marvellously stately Cornwall mansions and their grounds. The cast is sensational with Nigel Hawthorne, Richard E. Grant, Ben Kingsley, Imelda Staunton Imogen Stubbs and Mel Smith throwing themselves into the principal roles and with Helena Bonham-Carter looking better here than in anything she's done since breaking into the big-time with Room With A View (Trevor Nunn directed her as a fledgling in another fabulous-looking but not so effective costume drama, Lady Jane in 1985).

Shakespeare's play is, however, very wordy and replete with obscure contemporary references. Although substantially his version stays true to the original text Nunn has pruned and straightened it out in in places but even so there is a kind of mis-match between Shakespeare's theatricalized world and the rich naturalism of Nunn's staging. This results in some smothering of the Bard's language and consequently some hard going for the uninitiated, particularly as the script moves along at a cracking pace, often leaving the actors, with the exception of experienced thespians such as Hawthorne and Staunton, in its wake.

 

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