Twelfth Night at University of Auckland clock tower courtyard

By FRANCIS TILL

This year's University of Auckland Summer Shakespeare production is the audience-friendly Twelfth Night, situated, as usual, under the looming, lovely campus clock tower in a cosy little courtyard.

A natural crowd pleaser, this comedy of chaos draws its title from a festival in which everything is turned topsy-turvy. Here, the key bit of inversion has to do with the flipped social gender of Viola/Cesare (Sarah Thomson), a beautiful young woman washed up on the shores of a mythical country, Illyria, who then, for various good reasons, disguises herself as a (here, somewhat ridiculously costumed) young man, and proceeds to sow romantic confusion about the land.

There are, of course, potentially rich veins of much darker subtext, but director Sian Davis ignores them to focus instead on the whimsical, drawing characters with a light touch.

The downside to this tack is that the central characters are a bit thin on the boards, but it successfully moves a satisfying group of fools, rogues and drunkards most excellently to centre stage.

Robust performances by Owen Lindsey as Sir Toby and Adrian Chang as Sir Andre are particularly notable in this context, as is their re-invented sidekick Fabian, who appears delightfully as Fabianca (Julia Hyde).

What might otherwise be sheer pavlova is balanced by the storyline of Malvolio (Tama Boyle), the over-reaching steward to Countess Olivia (Catherine Nola). Malvolio is the only complex character in this production and Boyle gathers good attention to the role with a commanding physical presence.

His female counterpart, Maria (Charlotte Everett), also rises well to the role, while a curiously demented evocation of Feste (Paul Glenfield) adds to the froth.

The play is well-known for its witty handling of homoerotic themes, most of which are left here to the audience's own surmise.

Never an acoustical peach under any circumstances, the courtyard's vulnerability to passing helicopters and fire engines can be an extra nuisance when it comes to hearing the lines. This year the set uses the natural foliage side as a backdrop, making a difficult go for some of the softer voices.