The South Coast Choral and Arts Society have produced a unique version of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. It appears the concept was imagined and brought to life by the Director Flynn Turley placing the play in the 1920’s prohibition era. It is hard to imagine what Shakespeare would have thought of such a production particularly with trying to get the audience involved. The cast that Flynn has put together are nothing short of brilliant.
Led By Josh Barkley as Sir Toby Belch with his penetrating but well-modulated voice and physical stature suited this role. The same could be said for all the cast with clear diction that could be heard throughout the Victor Harbor town hall. Along with their voices their acting abilities were given the chance to shine. Some memorable moments were two fight scenes, one comedic while the other was dramatic.
The play centres on two unlikely twins, Sebastian played by Brian Plane and Viola who is disguised as a man named Cesario played by Jemmah Sims. They are separated and not sure if either of them is alive. Both are talented performers who showed their undeniable performing talents and the reveal of Viola at the conclusion was a fitting end.
No doubt the cast had a great time running around the audience and up the stairs to the stage in an endeavour to get the audience involved. However, that had its moments, but was rather overdone with a good proportion of the audience not being able to see what was happening in many instances. The large stage was left bare with only a piano centre stage for the entire show and the significance of this was unclear. The speakeasy bar set at audience level with some minor acting whilst others were performing on main stage was completely lost. It seems to be becoming a thing for amateur theatre companies to disregard the fourth wall, I cannot imagine this happening at Her Majesties or any other professional theatre.
Notwithstanding the above the front of house and backstage personnel matched the performers with their welcoming smiles and attention to detail which made it a most enjoyable evening. We look forward to their next production with the same amount of enthusiasm that these performers had.
