Men in Frocks: The Return

Yesterday I was back at the Old Vic for the Propeller production of Twelfth Night – a tale of sibling bereavement and men wooing women.

The set was darker than for Taming of the Shrew, but the performance was equally bright and uplifting with some hilarious comedy moments and contemporary costume accessories.

The play revolves around Olivia, mourning for her dead brother and being courted by three suitors. One of them, Malvolio, is unpopular with her friends and waiting staff, so they trick him into meeting her wearing yellow stockings and a permanent smile.

The tricking scene is the funniest, with the entire cast on stage hiding behind moving bushes and a comedy statue, snickering loudly as Malvolio reads aloud from a letter he has found, allegedly from Olivia, that encourages him to don this ridiculous attire.

He next appears looking slightly nervous to meet with his lady, then proudly rips off his black trousers to reveal not only the stockings, but an enormous studded, leather codpiece from Clone Zone.

Meanwhile Olivia has fallen for a messenger, Cesario, who is actually a woman, Viola, who disguised herself as a man after being washed ashore shipwrecked and believing her twin brother, Sebastian, to be dead.

Sebastian reappears and is amazed at the sudden affection he receives from Olivia, who believes him to be Cesario, but all is revealed as the two are wed and the twins are reunited at the end.

The productions have received a lot of press for the cross-dressing aspects of the shows, but, of course, that’s exactly how they would have been performed in Shakespeare’s day. In fact, while no-one quite seems to know what the origins of the word “drag” are, it is widely believed it dates from Shakespearean plays where he would write D.R.A.G. in the margin to clarify that the actor should be dressed as a girl.

Shakespeare believed that gender could be performed and in Propeller's Twelfth Night, more so than in Shrew, this became a proven fact. In Shrew the female characters are slightly caricatured - Katherine is brattish and Bianca is geeky - but in Twelfth Night, Olivia and her maid, Maria, are played “straight” and it’s not just about the putting on of female costumes. There are subtle mannerisms and movements that all help to create the feminine illusion, and while neither of the actors wore wigs and had typically male physiques, the fact that they were presented as women could not be questioned. In fact, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart’s Olivia reminded me very much of Dorothy from the Golden Girls.

I hope the company come back soon with other productions, while I’m now sold on Shakespeare I’m still not sure I could take it in without the energy and colour that they add to their performance. I very much look forward to seeing more.