TWELFTH NIGHT (The Show Must Go Online)****

 

By Megan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m9oONcXWvQ

Available until: Indefinitely

I can’t believe how good The Show Must Go Online is! Every single week they find new ways of making brilliant plays even more brilliant and they find new talented actors as well as bringing back people who have acted with them before in completely different roles. They surprise me every week because even though I know they’ll be good, I never guess all the different ways they’ll make the plays special.

Twelfth Night is like a funny play and a serious play at the same time. It has lots of funny scenes and funny characters but it is still a serious situation and it deals with lots of serious subjects. Olivia is sad about her dad and brother dying, lots of people love people who don’t love them back and someone is bullied in a really nasty way. This play made me laugh but it made me feel sad too.

TMSGO are getting better and better with the props every week. They were always good but sometimes when they passed props to each other it sometimes wasn’t in exactly the same place and that was okay because they were doing something really clever and I didn’t think it would be possible to get it perfect. But now they are getting it perfect all the time and it’s like magic.

There are lots of really good characters in this play. Lydia Bakelmun is a really good Viola because she is very strong and very brave but you can see Viola’s feelings underneath, she feels bad for making Olivia fall in love with her and she really loves Orsino. Her twin brother Sebastian was played by Clive Keene. I don’t think Sebastian thinks things through as carefully as Viola and I think he also doesn’t see things which are going on right in front of him but Mr Keene made him very likeable.

I liked Comfort Fabian because she showed Olivia getting happier and happier throughout the play. It’s like she was sad for ages then Viola came along and made her happy. I hope they can be friends. Ms Fabian was also brilliant when the character Fabian (Chi-Chi Onuah) was accidentally on mute so we couldn’t hear him. Ms Fabian improvised in Shakespearean English to tell Ms Onuah she was muted and that is so clever. I didn’t even realise for a moment that it wasn’t in the script. I only noticed because I looked at the live text. I like looking at the live text, it is very interesting and it helps me to understand things. I liked Michael Perez as Orsino because he was like an ordinary man and not just as a Duke. I think this is really important because Viola loves him, she’s not after his title.

But falling in love isn’t always a good thing to do and some people in this play end up unhappy. First there is Antonio who is in lots of trouble and might be put to death (but I think Viola will talk Orsino out of that, I hope so) but the thing I noticed this time which I didn’t know before is Antonio is in love with Sebastian. Liam Alexandru was so sad when he realised Sebastian had married Olivia. Antonio doesn’t say much at the end but Mr Alexandru showed how upset he was and it was really really sad. But I do like this ending because it is realistic. Not everyone gets a happy ending all at the same time. But I hope Antonio finds a nice boyfriend.

Another sad thing is what happens to Malvolio. I think he is a very silly man sometimes and Fiona Tong is so good at his character, her voice and her facial expressions were brilliant. He isn’t always a nice man but the way he is treated is horrible. Writing someone a love letter and pretending it’s from the person they like and shutting Malvolio up in the dark is really cruel. I think if someone is being horrible and annoying it’s okay if you don’t like them but it doesn’t mean you can bully them.

The bullies are great characters though. Julie Baber seemed so nice in the chat after the play but she was able to change her expression so she looked like a completely different person and not nearly so nice when she played Maria. Jeffery Weissman and Lewis Allcock were really funny as Sir Toby and Sir Andrew. I liked the way they said their lines and their funny expressions.

Feste is another bully and he was played by Carys McQueen. She is Welsh like me and she is so talented! Feste had fun all the way through the play and I think Ms McQueen did too and so did I. She is so clever at doing comedy and she has a really beautiful voice for speaking and for singing. She sang in a few different styles to her own music and I really really liked it. Ms McQueen had earrings like lemons and they looked so pretty. I feel bad because I like Feste a lot but I think you can like someone’s singing without liking everything they do.

It was a really good production of Twelfth Night and I’m looking forward to Troilus and Cressida next week.