The Dark Side........

In Macbeth, the classic Shakespearean tragedy, Michael Walling managed to draw some laughter from the audience. With Twelfth Night, categorised as a comedy, the British actor-director has created pain. In a fluid staging on a minimal set, accompanied by scattered music, Border Crossings delivered two hours worth of excellent drama. This is a must for everybody who loves theatre, even to those who do not particularly like Shakespeare!

Viola, the principal character in Twelfth Night, is played by a man: Gareth Corke. Sir Andrew, a young knight, is a girl: Melody Brown. This inversion of gender is nothing new. In the Elizabethan theatre, adolescent males played the female characters. Gareth Corke, performing the roles of the twins Viola and Sebastian, triggers off a puzzle in the first minutes: how will Michael Walling pull off the end of the play, when the twins finally meet and reassure one another that they are both alive? We are not going to tell you..... It is even more intriguing because that meeting of the twins is also the moment when Viola, freed from her masculine disguise, marries the Duke Orsino, while Sebastian places a ring on Olivia's finger. But, rather than two actors, Michael Walling uses only one.

This feeling of unease is amplified by the tone that the director gives to Twelfth Night. The tears and uncertainties of Viola, in the role of Cesario, Orsino's page, evoke profound doubts about sex and gender - which worry everybody at some time in their lives.

In the scenes when Viola and Sebastian are individually confronted with the possibility that the other twin could have drowned in the shipwreck, the production brings us close to the distress of a Hamlet or an Othello. As with these tragic heroes, we go on a journey into metaphysical and existential questions.

Alongside this exploration of the dark aspects of the characters, Michael Walling does not neglect the humour. Twelfth Night is, after all, a comedy. The perfect clear delivery of Border Crossings' nine actors makes the comic passages extremely accessible. Michael Walling's additions serve to clarify the jokes: “These be her very Cs her Us her Ns and her Ts ” remarks Malvolio while reading the letter which he thinks is from Olivia......

The play of light, alternately yellow and white, accentuating the colours in Viola/Sebastian's costume, is effective. Viola emerges as goodness and beauty. In Walling's Macbeth, the lighting, frequently reddish, underlined the plot, the murder, the blood. Here there is a different atmosphere; one which, with the use of Mauritian instruments - ravanne, percussion and guitar - brings the play close to the audience.

Twelfth Night respects the purity of Shakespeare's text, yet it never feels distant from the audience. That's a tribute to Border Crossings, and a good reason to urge you to see this play.