I was lucky enough to go to The National Theatre with my English A level class. We got to watch 'Twelfth Night', which is a comedy written by William Shakespeare; since this is what we will be studying it was nice to see a visual interpretation of the original play. Shakespeare wrote this play about 400 years ago and it’s referenced from the twelfth night following Christmas Day, also known as the Eve of the Feast of Epiphany. It used to be a Catholic holiday but became the day of revelry; this happened before Shakespeare’s play was written.
The play is about twins called Viola and Sebastian who became separated due to a shipwreck. Viola disguised herself as a boy (her brother) falling in love with Duke Orsino, however he’s in love with the countess Olivia, who falls in love with Viola thinking that she’s a man. It’s a full love triangle that creates many funny moments.
This was my first time going to the theatre so I went in not knowing what to expect. The room was smaller then what I imagined but still, it was big enough to fit at least 1,000 people. The stage looked quite impressive when I first saw it but little did I know how many uses it actually has for example the middle part of the stage rotates and opens many trap doors revealing different props. The play started at approximately 7:30 and lasted till 10:30 with only a small 20 minute break in the middle. Although this sounds like quite a long time it actually passed quite quickly, proving that it was entertaining.
It was a very humorous and enjoyable play with scenes playing music making you want to join in dancing with them. All the actors were really good at their roles but personally I really liked the character called Malvolia because the actress played her role especially well, even though she was quite an uptight character she also had a humorous twist making her amusing to watch.
Although the actors themselves were amazing the whole stage design brought everything together. There was this stairwell, which had many different functions; it actually felt quite magical seeing it evolve into the multiple backdrops for all the different scenes. The stage designs consisted of just the right amount of detail to bring the scene to life and make it seem believable but still easy enough to change.
At the end after everyone in the audience clapped and cheered, I went around and asked a few of my classmates as well as about 15 other people for their opinion about the play, everyone including me very much enjoyed it! I received comments such as “Absolutely amazing!” “The actors played their roles so well” and “It was helpful since I’m studying the play”.
In my opinion the play was amazing and I would definitely recommend it, in fact I would love to see it again myself! My first theatre experience was much better than I anticipated, it made me realise how much I’ve missed out not going before, I will definitely return sometime soon.
By Paulina Tobola - Gumley House Convent School
