Twelfth Night, theatre review: The theatrical equivalent of a scorched-earth policy

Emma Rice was never going to go quietly. And why should she, the innovative artistic director whose distinctly non-traditional practices fell foul of the Globe’s purists? This is her second and last season at the helm and the final new production she herself will direct for the main space.

It’s exuberant, anarchic, accessible and quite, quite maddening. It is, in fact, the theatrical equivalent of a scorched-earth policy – and a mischievous part of me hopes that it breaks all the venue’s previous box office records.

Shakespearean traditionalists – and presumably the majority of the Globe’s board – will be having conniptions within two minutes flat. The action starts on the SS Unity, a ship where it’s all white-clad sailors, 1970s disco, sequins and a rendition of We are Family. The inventions and irritations keep coming thick and fast in a show in which music is accorded high importance. The text has been sharply cut, many old-fashioned words have been altered and some things appear to have been jiggered about with just for the hell of it.

What’s lost, quite simply, is any sense of depth in the narrative itself, not to mention the rich, swirling ambiguity, often concerning matters sexual, that prevails in Illyria. Nonetheless, the audience, so different to one at the august RSC, were visibly delighted and queues for returns for a Shakespeare production that is not star-led should never be under-estimated.

Drag performer Le Gateau Chocolat plays Feste and singularly fails to capture any of the character’s unique and melancholy wisdom. Unlike Tamsin Greig up the river at the National, Katy Owen is a non-gender-altered Malvolio – the way forward in the equal access for actresses stakes, for sure - who loses pathos by hectic over-emphasis. Far better is Anita-Joy Uwajeh as an emotionally open Viola.

I sincerely hope that audiences won’t have this production as their only point of reference for this most beguiling of plays, but I confidently predict that it’s going to be a huge popular favourite.

In rep until Aug 5, Shakespeare's Globe; www.shakespearesglobe.com