Twins Viola and Sebastian (played by Gillian Jones) are shipwrecked and separated on the coast of Illyria. They think each other dead. Viola disguises herself as a boy and gets a job with Orsino (Ivar Kants). She is deputed to deliver messages of love to Jacquy Phillips, who falls in love with the beardless youth. Meanwhile....
It's one of Shakespeare's gender-bending comedies. In the original productions, the women's roles were taken by men, and so we would have seen some beardless youth dressed as a girl, disguising himself as a beardless youth. Nowadays, of course, they skip the first part.
In any case, this production started off with the Australian National Theater as a modern dress production with the setting and musical interludes suggesting some Caribbean island. The performer best known to worldwide audiences is Geoffrey Rush, and he does well with Sir Andrew Aguecheeks. However, the performing honors go to John Wood as Sir Toby Belch, and Kerry Walker as Feste. Wood is excellent as the rundown, self-indulgent, boozy uncle of Miss Phillips, while Miss Walker distinguishes herself with singing the songs, and her sad, observant eyes.
There were some troubles with the sound track, which was out of synchronization with the visual elements, and the rest of the performances often seem to sputter over Shakespeare's language. While there are better versions available (the 1970 BBC production which features Alec Guinness is my favorite recorded adaptation), this will do very nicely for those who, like me, enjoy Shakespeare's comedies.
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