Sunday Mercury; 28 July, 2002
Living Section - Play: TRANSPORT OF DELIGHT
TWELFTH NIGHT, Coughton Court, Alcester
TWELFTH Night is a delight at the best of times but, performed out in the open before the magnificent backdrop of Coughton Court, it really was something else.
The British Touring Shakespeare Company did the comedy great justice, causing the audience - who were happily supping wine and munching their picnics - to laugh out loud at every other scene.
The play is a romp of mistaken identities, misdirected passions and downright dirty tricks.
And it is the lesser characters who steal the show. This was definitely the case at Coughton where Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek were riotously drunk throughout, tripping over members of the audience and hiding behind bushes.
Their unruly behaviour, coupled with the crowd's bawdy reaction, transported us back to the days when Shakespeare's plays would originally have been performed before a drunken, lower-class crowd sitting around on the ground.
The innuendoes were seized upon by the cast with relish and the audience picked up on every one.
Zoe Chamberlain
