With mistaken identities, mischievous schemes and unexpected romances, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is one of the most beloved comedies on stage. Director Jamie Glover and actor Mathew Horne, playing Malvolio, speak to Carrie Askew about the rehearsal process and what they are most looking forward to in staging this classic play.
What excites you most about staging this at the Crucible specifically?
MH: Well, the Crucible is a theatre that I’ve not played before and it’s a very prominent thrust stage, and that can make for a very different theatre experience, whatever play you’re putting on. Twelfth Night is largely a celebration: a celebration of love, being who you are and identity, and being on such a prominent thrust stage really brings the audience to the play rather than us taking the play to the audience. It’s an enormous, immersive experience actually.
In the Crucible, you’re also at ground level when you’re performing, the same level as the audience, and there’s something really thrilling about that, about bringing an audience into your world – whatever you’re creating. I think Twelfth Night is a world of love and magic and fantasy, so we can take the audience along with us much more easily in that Crucible environment.
JG: I’m not just saying this because I’m working there, but I think the Crucible is genuinely one of the most exciting theatre spaces in Britain. Twelfth Night is, and has always been, my favourite play, so to do it here is perfect. It really is the most extraordinary space because it thrusts everyone into the heart of the action, and there’s so much going on in Twelfth Night that’s funny, sad and moving, the wraparound the Crucible brings is perfect for this play – perfect for most plays, actually – but perfect for Twelfth Night. It couldn’t be a better venue as far as I’m concerned.
Mathew, what is your relationship with Shakespeare? What inspiration have you drawn on to get into the mind of Malvolio?
MH: My earliest memory of Shakespeare was probably studying and going to see Henry V at school. Shakespeare has been a huge part of my cultural and educational experience. He is so lauded in this country – quite rightly – that he is ubiquitous in popular culture and within the arts. So studying, watching and then being lucky enough to perform Shakespeare has meant it’s been part of my life from a very young age.
Mat, you’re a hugely celebrated comedy actor. How different is working on a 400-year-old comedy as opposed to a modern one? Do you have to work in different ways to get the laughs?
MH: I don’t think you do have to work in different ways, I certainly don’t approach it in a different way. For me, with any play or any piece of work, any script, any character, it’s about finding the truth of the situation and the circumstances with that character; what the reality is of this character’s world. We are all human beings at the end of the day, whether it’s 400 years ago or yesterday. Finding that truth means there will be some commonality there and it’s my job to find that truth and bring it to the present.
Expanding on that answer, what parallels do you see in the comedy of Shakespeare and the comedy of today?
MH: Well, a lot of Shakespeare’s comedy is quite puerile and I think most people’s introduction to comedy, at school, in the playground, is generally quite puerile. Slapstick comedy and clowning, which is well over a hundred years old, was certainly part of my formative experience. I grew up with Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin – not that I was born in the 1920s – but that was my experience of it. I think it will always be part of comedy culture and I suppose the best modern example of that is Mr Bean. So they would be my two parallels. I’m not saying that Malvolio embodies either or both of those, but I would like to think that he does by the time I’ve got to the end of rehearsals!
Finally, what are you both most looking forward to about this production, and what should audiences expect from the experience?
MH: There’s a potential here at the Crucible, particularly with the school’s programme which is running in line with this show, of bringing Shakespeare and Twelfth Night to a brand new audience and possibly creating somebody’s first ever experience of theatre. That to me is incredibly exciting. What is important to me when doing Shakespeare is finding the truth of a character and a story and making that accessible and applicable to the present day. You can do that in abundance when you’re performing plays that are on the curriculum or you know that you’ve got lots of students coming in to watch it and to learn – I find that really exciting. The main thing that I’m really looking forward to is bringing this play and Shakespeare to a modern audience and hopefully making it mean something to them – and above all of that, giving them an enjoyable night out.
JG: I hope audiences will get a bit of everything – it is my favourite play and is so because there’s so much of the human experience in it. There’s how closely aligned grief and romantic love are and I think that happens with Olivia, the way that she’s grieving but then suddenly falls herself headlong in love. It’s very funny, painful, witty, and I think with Mathew Horne – who is in my opinion one of the finest comic actors – playing one of the finest comic roles, people are in for a treat. It sounds like a pretty good combination to me, and is proving so in the rehearsal room. I can’t wait to see him and this incredible company of actors, which some people will know from King Lear already. They’re really an extraordinarily strong ensemble and they are something to behold. I can’t wait for people to see it.
Twelfth Night runs Sat 10–Sat 31 Oct at the Crucible. Tickets are available at sheffieldtheatres.co.uk.
