MOSQUITOES AND HOT TOMATO SOUP MEAN TWELFTH NIGHT IS GO IN ROMFORD PARK

DESPITE all the trials and tribulations, the 52nd Romford Shakespeare in the Park is GO.
Romford Summer Theatre’s Twelfth Night, directed by Vernon Keeble-Watson will be bouncing round the Rockery in Raphael Park, the last two weeks of this month (June) with a full cast in one of the Bard’s funniest plays.
Regular readers to this blog will know that it has not been plain sailing and the equivalent to the sea freezing over, so perhaps ‘Will’ knew something by starting the play with a shipwreck.
Too many other plays and lack of actors brought a blog from me ‘Lest is Best’, asking the question and though still to be answered, a gallant crew mustered and we are ready to raise the flappy things and get going.
Twelfth Night is the modern equivalent of Confused .Com, with farcical door slamming replaced by squirrels digging up their nuts on stage and the odd squadron of mosquitoes coming out for a late night take away, but it is first and foremost, fun.
Shakespeare in the Park demands as much of the audience as of the actors, with thermal garments, insect repellent and wet weather clothing, a sure guarantee for a warm and balmy evening against a light painted setting and hot tomato soup minus midges doing two lengths in the cup.
A brief synopsis on the play is; It would take three pages, but suffice to say it is William Shakespeare at his best and there is a happy ending with more Aaahhs’ then a doctors’ surgery.
Central to the theme of the play is a set of twins, Sebastian and Viola, with one falling in love with Count Orsino and the other with Lady Olivia, and both thinking the other drowned in the shipwreck.
The director left the play back to the 17th century when it was written and men played all the parts, but with a slight twist that a woman is now playing a man as he could not find twin brother and sister. (top picture: Eleanor Burgess as Viola and Abby Boyer as Sebastian)
With this in mind you would have admired the stage make-up for the other women’s roles in particular Curia and Valentina if they were men, but they are not.
Such is the diversity of the Bard at his finest when ‘what is so is so, and what is that but that’ being never a truer word spoken.
Twelfth Night is believed to be one of the few that require singing from cast member, in this case the Fool, Feste.
Suffice to say the actor in question was unaware when going for the role and is a much better journalist than singer. (picture middle right. Bob Etherton as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Terence Mustoo as Sir Toby Belch and David Linton as Fabian: bottom right, Alex Muckersie as Malvolio)
Twelfth Night runs for seven performances from Thursday June 19 to Saturday June 21, a matinee on Sunday June 22 at 3pm and the following week, Thursday June 26 to Saturday June 28. All performances begin at 8pm
Tickets are £10 at the door (big Oak tree by the lake) or online at http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/event/48350.

see WHEN WOMEN ARE MEN AND ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL