Making Bard work of it all

Photo: Jonathan Keenan

KATE O'DONNELL as Feste

TWELFTH NIGHT

Royal Exchange,

Manchester, to May 20

CROSS-GENDER casting is the latest gimmick in theatre, by all accounts: we have had Maxine Peake as Hamlet, Tasmin Greig at the National as Malvolia (rather than Malvolio) in this very play and several more similar switcheroos in the last couple of years. Trouble is, none of them seem to have amounted to very much.

This time great play is made by the Exchange of the casting of transgender Manchester "performer, activist and theatre and cabaret-maker" Kate O'Donnell as Feste, one of Shakespeare's sage clowns, but there's a great deal of so-whatism over the move.

In one way the casting is no more than we might expect, since the comedy anyway turns on a cross-dressing woman, mistaken identity and unrequited love all-round. That Kate O'Donnell isn't much of an actress but gets a couple of pages in the programme to explain her "journey" anyway seems to be more about gender politics and marketing than theatre, and it's a slightly dismay-inducing trend.

This idea that gender-bending Shakespeare needs some sort of gender statement in its casting is perhaps a sign that too little attention has been paid to the storyline, since the result, while achieving good humour and having strong entertainment value throughout, isn't anything approaching a "great" Twelfth Night. The comedy is sometimes a little overplayed, the romantic stories underplayed and the verse speaking fast rather than always precise.

Director Jo Davies is far more interesting in her use of music: folk violinist Kate Young and a couple of other musicians - accordion player Tarek Merchant and lap-tap guitarist Joseph Garvill - are built into the show as performing actors and their mix of folksy playing and singing is a neat way of setting the eastern-Adriatic mood of the play.

Pompous

As for the actors, Faith Omole is a sweet and caring Viola, Daniel Francis-Swaby likewise a workmanlike Sebastian, Kevin Harvey a charming Orsino and Anthony Calf a successfully pompous Malvolio, while servant Maria (Mina Anwar), Olivia's uncle Sir Toby Belch (Simon Armstrong), and potential Olivia suitor Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Harry Attwell) are an enjoyable comedy trio.

But the strongest performance of the night by far comes from Kate Kennedy as Olivia. Very tall and a little goofy, she conveys a lot in a few lines and is always the most magnetic personality on stage.