This is set in “a world midway between Elizabethan pageant and haute-couture catwalk”, a programme note for Scena Mundi's production says, and the initial signs certainly point to that. The aisle of the glorious Grade I-listed French Protestant Church in Soho Square – one of the few remnants of England's rich Huguenot history – is covered with a vivid blue plastic sheet running most of its length, as if in a fashion show runway, and the cast, some dressed to the nines, make their entrance in a sort of dumbshow with heightened dance steps and arm movements.
But thankfully, that's the last we see of that high-concept nonsense. Save for some acting that strives too hard for effect (there's some cartoonish facial clowning from one or two actors), things (mostly) calm down and Cecilia Dorland's production settles into a pleasingly traditional reading of the play, with terrific verse-speaking and central performances to savour.
By his 'mad' scene in prison we feel genuinely sorry for the cross-gartered fool
After being shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria and believing her twin, Sebastian, to be drowned, Viola (Harriet Hare) dresses as a man for safety and calls herself Cesario to serve at the court of Duke Orsino (Pip Brignall, agreeably romantic). She plights his suit to the unyielding Countess Olivia (Emma Hall) and soon she's caught in a fabulously complicated love triangle where “all is not what it is”. Much to their consternation and for different reasons of concern – Orsino's about gender and Olivia's about class – both nobles fall for the “boy” Cesario, while Cesario/Viola falls for her master.
Providing the broad comedy are Olivia's uncle, Sir Toby Belch (Jack Christie), along with his confreres in midnight mayhem, the milksop Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Thomas Winsor) and scheming Fabian (David Keogh), whose revelry upsets the countess's prissy servant Malvolio.
Although there is much comedy, cross-dressing, mistaken identity, near misses and devilishly complicated plotting in Twelfth Night, at its problematic heart is the cruel gulling of Malvolio. Pompous he may be, but surely he doesn't deserve his treatment at the hands of Sir Toby, aided and abetted by Olivia's maid Maria (Clare Brice, nicely malevolent) and the rather fey Feste (Edward Fisher, who at times appears to be channelling Stewie from Family Guy), when they convince him that his mistress has fallen in love with him. Martin Priest's Malvolio starts too obviously haughty, but by his “mad' scene in prison we feel genuinely sorry for the cross-gartered fool.
Dorland might have used this magnificent space more fully, since most of the action takes place in the small area between the front of the pews and the altar, but the small cast (some of whom play more than one role) give an admirably clear interpretation of the play. The standout performances come from Hare and Hall, whose scenes together as Cesario and Olivia have real chemistry and potency, and carry the production.