TWELFTH NIGHT

Australia, 1987, 118 minutes, Colour.
Gillian Jones, Ivar Kants, Peter Cummins, Geoffrey Rush, Jacquy Philips, Kerry Walker.
Directed by Neil Armfeld.

Twelfth Night is a modern dress version of Shakespeare's comedy. It is a film version of a stage presentation by the Lighthouse Theatre of South Australia. It was filmed in the Bijou Theatre Balmain, using stylised sets with a touch of realism. As an attempt to present Shakespeare in modern day dress, it works well. However, it would not be to
everyone's taste. One must remember, however, that Twelfth Night and, Shakespeare's comedies were presented in the contemporary dress of the 16th and early 17th centuries.

This version pays great respect to the text. The poetry is presented, the comic prose. The music is also a feature with specially composed versions of the songs by Alan John. They are played by a small contemporary band.

The acting is good. Ivar Kants has to open the play with the melancholy Duke Orsino's speech and the transition to a contemporary party and into a Shakespearian play. He is suitably sad and romantic as Orsino. However, Gillian Jones has to carry the play as both Viola and Sebastian. Whi1e this is not quite realistically credible, it is credible in the presentation of the play and audience accepting the dual role - and the actress interpreting the masculine part. Peter Cummins is very good as Malvoleo. John Wood is quite bumptious as Sir Toby Belch and Geoffrey Rush, a young Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Kerry Walker is good as Feste the Fool (and has to carry the songs). Tracey Harvey (from The Gillies Report and other comedies) is Maria.

The film highlights Shakespeare's Illyrian setting, a fantasy world - with the romance of past centuries and the style of the present day.

The film shows romantic love, falling in love, eccentric love (especially with the comic characters). The coincidences are rife, the possibility of Orsino falling, in love with Viola in the guise of a man and Olivia falling in love with a man who is actually a woman makes for the interpretation of the sexual roles and stereotypes.

The film works quite cinematically with close-ups, long sequences of speech blended with action and movement on the stage sets. Where it tends to bog down is in the 16th century, raucous comedy of Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek.

However, as a way of interpreting Shakespeare's play and presenting it in a contemporary context, the film is a very interesting experiment.