Twelfth Night

This show has now closed, click here for a listing of current and future London shows

Previewed 2 November 2012, Opened 17 November 2012, Closed 9 February 2013 at the Apollo Theatre in London

The Shakespeare's Globe Theatre present William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in London in an all-male Original Practices production, exploring clothing, music, dance and settings possible in around 1601.

"Mark Rylance's Olivia is brilliant" The Times

The cast features Mark Rylance as 'Olivia' and Stephen Fry as 'Malvolio' along with Samuel Barnett as 'Sebastian', Johnny Flynn as 'Viola', Colin Hurley as 'Sir Toby Belch' and Roger Lloyd Pack as 'Sir Andrew Aguecheek'. The production is directed by Tim Carroll with designs by Jenny Tiramani and music by Claire van Kampen.

"Wondrously funny. Mark Rylance's performance is a marvel" The Independent

"There's much to enjoy in Tim Carroll's candlelit, music-filled revival of the production originally staged at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre ten years ago, though his emphasis on the play's merriment misses its mood of melancholy. A glorious Rylance plays Olivia with Kabuki-like daintiness, hidden beneath black veils but unable to disguise her desire for Duke Orsino's dishy pageboy, Cesario. Paul Chahidi is an unexpected showstealer as mischievous housekeeper Maria: he plumps up the part perfectly, realising her as a woman who has the entire household – upstairs and downstairs – under her thumb... Johnny Flynn's prettily androgynous Viola is enchanting... Flynn is well-matched by Samuel Barnett as Viola's twin Sebastian, a wholly plausible lookalike if not quite as cute." The Mail on Sunday

"Deliciously funny. Works like a dream. A must see production. I don't know how it could have been done better" The Daily Express

"Here is a director who has sufficient faith in his audience to present the work of our greatest playwright with a sense of fun and ingenuity, but also total fidelity. The cast he has assembled is a veritable box of fireworks, and, my goodness, how their characters sparkle, fizzle, boom and explode upon the stage in blazes of vivid colour... It is a work of magnificent obsessions: each costume, for instance, has been hand-stitched by up to 20 craftsmen, and this marks the first occasion that Renaissance instruments have been performed live in a play on Shaftesbury Avenue... I doubt I will ever see a better Twelfth Night and I feel a profound sense of gratitude to Mr Carroll for having the courage to put on Shakespeare in the way that he would have done it himself." The Sunday Telegraph

Twelfth Night in London at the Apollo Theatre previewed from 2 November 2012, opened on 17 November 2012 and closed on 9 February 2013 - played in repertory with Richard III.

Royal Shakespeare Company: Twelfth Night - 2009

Previewed 19 December 2009, Opened 22 December 2009, Closed 27 February 2010 at the Duke of York's Theatre in London.

The Royal Shakespeare Company presents William Shakespeare's darkly comic play Twelfth Night featuring Richard Wilson in his RSC debut playing 'Malvolio' and directed by Gregory Doran.

Everyone is looking for love – some in impossible places. Some mourn the love they have lost. Some long for love they are refused. In Illyria love aches and madness rules.

The cast for the RSC's Twelfth Night in London features Richard Wilson as 'Malvolio, with Alexandra Gilbreath as 'Olivia', James Fleet as Sir Andrew Aguecheek', Nancy Carroll as 'Viola', Richard McCabe as 'Sir Toby Belch', Jo Stone-Fewings as 'Orsino', Pamela Nomvete as 'Maria' and Milton Yerolemou as 'Feste'. Directed by Gregory Doran with movement by Struan Leslie, designs by Robert Jones, lighting by Tim Mitchell, music by Paul Englishby, sound by Martin Slavin and fights by Terry King. This production was originally seen at the Royal Shakespeare Comany's Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in October 2009.

"The talk at the RSC these days is always about 'ensemble', but when push comes to shove the company often likes to flaunt a name big enough to bring out the autograph-hunter in all of us... It's Richard Wilson, doomed to be remembered for Victor Meldrew, who dominates the posters. Is his Malvolio any good? Should one stump up to see him? Well, yes he is, and of course you should. The bald truth of the matter is that Wilson has made his RSC debut at the age of 73, he rather likes directing these days, and you'd better catch him in London while you can... The problem with the performance lies in Doran's weirdly warm, far too outdoors-feeling production; the design has one foot in the early 19th-century Ottoman Empire, making Wilson, in his Calvinist-looking black coat, appear to have jumped aboard some BBC Christmas special by mistake. Doran would have been better off suiting the action to the star and setting the whole thing in Inverclyde." The Daily Telegraph

"They say there is a perfect Twelfth Night laid up for us in heaven. In the meantime, Gregory Doran's imported Stratford revival, with its eastern Mediterranean setting and casting of Richard Wilson as Malvolio, is picturesque, pleasant and popular. I still feel, however, that Doran finds more comedy in the play's romantic complexities than he does in its social divisions... The production's Levantine setting, with its bustling bazaars and bushy-bearded priests, deprives the comedy of some of its deeply English social precision... Tim Mitchell's lighting is beautiful and the resolution of the love-tangle provokes, as it should, gasps of astonished delight." The Guardian

"Wtaching Richard Wilson capering arthritically around in underpants and thigh-high yellow stockings is one of the highlights of this RSC Shakespeare comedy... The play is all about the blindness of love. And old Will SShakespeare was a dab hand at farce, so you get a mad scramble of women falling for women dressed as men, men for men who are women ... and so on. And while the lines are 400 years old, under Gregory Doran's direction, the gestures are thoroughly 21st century... A fun introduction to the Bard." The New of the World

RSC's Twelfth Night in London at the Duke of York's Theatre previewed from 19 December 2009, opened on 22 December 2009 and closed on 27 February 2010.