Twelfth Night at Lavenham Hall

Lavenham Hall

Yesterday evening a group of us attended the Lavenham Players' production of Twelfth Night, the second show that has been staged by the group in the lovely gardens of Lavenham Hall.

The production was well up to the standard of their 'World War 2 inspired' Much ado about Nothing that played at the same venue two years ago.

The cast was excellent across the piece.  There were outstanding performances from Katie Lummis who was a suitably androgenous Viola/Cesario, Malcolm Hollister, a thinner than usual and rather sinister Sir Toby Belch, and Robert Crighton a sadly believeable Malvolio.  Paul Vella and Annie Eddington made an elegant Duke Orsino and Countess Olivia.  In the spirit of the actor/manager, Anthony Faulkner, the owner of Lavenham Hall gave a good account of his roles as a sea captain and Fabian.  The line 'This is to give a dog, and in recompense desire my dog again' (5.i.5) was given additional resonance by the presence on the stage of one of the dogs of the house, who performed his part with great stage presence.

Updated to the 1920's, the many well known lyrics from the play (Hey Ho the wind and the rain, and Come Away, Come Away Death to name but two) were given appropriate jazz based settings. Cecil Qadir as Feste delivered his ballads with great aplomb.

All of the actors clearly understood every word of what they were saying, and the audience, perhaps due to this, equally clearly heard every word.  Sadly this is more than can be said for some of the Shakespeare that is put on in our professional theatres where one feels that misplaced concern about the attention span of the audience  all too often results in rushed speeches and poor diction.

In my view the acid test of a good Twelfth Night is whether the line from Antonio in the final act,  'An apple cleft in two is not more twin than these two creatures' (5.i.217) actually rings true.  Viola and Sebastian, the long separated twins, on whose likeness much of the plot hangs, were sufficiently similar on this occasion for the scene when all is revealed to be credible.  I rarely watch this reconciliation without a lump in my throat, and so it was on this occasion.

The play was produced by Robert Crighton and Joseph James and Directed by Gemma Leggett and Penny Mills.  Sponsorship was provided by Number 10 Wine Bar and Kitchen and Woodbridge School.