Theatre review: Twelfth Night, Botanic Gardens, Glasgow
Twelfth Night | Rating: **** | Botanic Gardens, Glasgow
Then they sang It Might As Well Rain Until September; and right on cue, the ominous pitter-patter of sustained Glasgow rain swept through the trees at interval time, and brought the performance to an abrupt end.
Missing out on the second half of a show is a natural hazard of Bard In The Botanics, well worth it for compensating gorgeous sunlit evenings; but this time around, I was agog to see exactly what Jennifer Dick would do with the almost dizzying pattern of gender-bending she sets up in the first half.
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Hide AdIt’s not that the gender of the characters is questioned – Emilie Patry’s Duke remains a lord and master, Viola and Olivia the ladies, despite Viola’s boyish disguise.
Yet with all the characters in the main love-plot played by actors of the opposite sex, the possibilities seem romantic, ridiculous and riotous, all at once.
What was clear, before the rains came, was that the show boasts a fine Sir Toby Belch in Kirk Bage, and a superbly poised Lady Olivia in Ryan Ferrie; and although it’s less obvious exactly what the Sixties setting has to do with it, the energy and wit is immense – perhaps enough to hold the rain at bay on at least a few occasions, before the final performance next weekend.