‘Twelfth Night’ – Preview

Rehearsal photo, credits to Qawiiah Bisiriyu

The Week 6 Mainshow at the ADC is the annual BME Shakespeare production, the Marlowe Society’s Production of Twelfth Night. In the words of Associate Director Supriya Finch, this comedy is fundamentally about ‘the experience of a stranger learning to fit in a strange land’, and explores ‘identities, romance and friendship’ along the way. The production also importantly seeks to ‘return Shakespeare to the level of cultural accessibility his original characters had’, and features an all-BME cast and crew. The choice to stage Twelfth Night, as co-producers Channan Sangha and Qawiiah Bisiriyu explain, is also intended to allow actors to be ‘explorative with their characters, challenging binaries and boundaries’. The text plays with ‘identity, trickery and ambition’, and ‘portrays rigid labels as limiting, instead encouraging us to have fun with our identities and embrace the fluidity of human experiences in an uplifting way’. As the cast so energetically show, ‘the plot relishes the humourous consequences of this ambiguity’.

Channan explains that this project ‘started almost a year ago, so to see it finally coming to fruition is really special. The whole point of BME Shakespeare is to break boundaries in ways that showcase the strength that lies in the talent of our diverse community. To create an inclusive space, bring newcomers into Cambridge theatre, and just revel in how everyone adds their own spin to reflect our diverse cultures and experiences has been beyond special.’ 

Qawiiah adds that ‘this has been one of the biggest shows I’ve been involved with, and it has really felt like a labour of love. Collectively, we’ve made it a modern production that highlights the ethos of BME Shakespeare as being inclusive and celebratory of the diverse talent that exists within our student community.’

Staging a text as canonical as Shakespeare also comes with its own challenges and opportunities, as the producers go on to discuss. Channan acknowledges that ‘I’ve always had an ambivalent relationship with Shakespeare. The core concepts and explorations of human relationships in his folios are timeless, yet I’ve always felt somewhat disconnected from the actors, cultural settings and aspects of the texts themselves.’ Similarly, Qawiiah felt that ‘when studying Shakespeare at school, I think I had a preconception that there was a particular tradition or formula to his plays and how they should be performed’.

So how to overcome this seeming inaccessibility? For Channan, it’s ‘giving BME theatre makers the opportunity to tackle works from which we have traditionally been excluded, and emphasising flexibility in interpretation whilst retaining the original language, has really removed this disconnect. If this sense of disconnect resonates with audiences and readers, I hope we can help you connect with Shakespeare more authentically!’

Qawiiah stresses that ‘there is a lot of space to experiment and play with Shakespeare in a way that diverges from the previous exclusionary aspects of his work. I have become able to resonate more with the creative freedom that Shakespeare allows people to have, and this means my experience of his plays has been more enjoyable as a result.’

Expect ‘colourful textiles, beautiful music and movement, and an unbridled sense of joy’! It’s an exercise in freedom and play, highlighting ‘the idea of not always being restricted by tradition and defining relationships and experiences on your own terms’ –‘something our entire team has worked incredibly hard to bring to life’.

Rehearsal photo credits to Thea Melton

 And finally, a teaser from the assistant costume designer, Madinah Ghafoor:

Tell me about the aesthetic vision for the production.

We wanted to balance showcasing the actors’ cultures with their characters’ personalities. A large part was about modern cultural familiarity, such as through Sister Topas’ rapper-influenced outfit in Act 5, or her extroverted African Aunty characterisation at other times. Sir Toby is portrayed like a loud man you’d find at a pub, and we wanted to convey this careless hedonism through their costume. The challenge was making sure we weren’t appearing to tie culture to inherently negative qualities, so we had to combine them carefully. Colour also played a large part: for example we wanted to shift Olivia’s all black mourning attire at the start of the play to slowly get more vibrant as the festive period of the play progresses. Generally, it was about appearing fun; take for example Malvolio, who is typically conveyed as extremely austere. We wanted him in a dressing gown when he chastises the revellers in the middle of the night, and there was also a party scene where characters wear sunglasses; again, showing a more fun and accessible portrayal of Shakespeare whilst staying true to characters’ personalities. In particular, we wanted people of ethnic minorities and queer people to see parts of themselves or their communities reflected in these characters. We wanted to foreground the queerness of the play, conveying Sebastian’s reckless flamboyance through costume, as well as embracing Viola’s androgyny, even outside of her disguise as Cesario.  It was also fun to consider each of the cast members’ diverse relationships with gender whilst designing costumes, particularly in a play where gender subversion plays such a huge part.

What kinds of opportunities did you find in all the disguises and confusions around identity in Twelfth Night? Do you want the characters to remain completely recognisable, or are you hoping to play with the audience’s perceptions too?

An interesting opportunity was toying with how the play deals with gender identity. Whilst we found that many portrayals of Viola emphasised her discomfort while being perceived as male, after speaking to the actor, we decided to make her androgynous even in her ‘original form’, to portray her as empowered and liberated in the genderfluid space which the carnivalesque period allows. As for playing with audiences’ perceptions of disguise, we wanted the characters to remain fairly recognisable to heighten the comedy and ridiculousness of the characters as they mistake some clearly recognisable people. Sister Topas, who is normallyFeste in disguise, is instead portrayed as her own, separate character, which drastically changes the usually serious tone of the ‘dark room’ scene.

Buy your tickets for Twelfth Night, which runs from Tuesday 28th February to Saturday 4th March, here.