LANCASHIRE EVENING POST
 
ROLLICKING FROLICS WITH NO HOLDS BARD ...
 
Review - Twelfth Night CHARTER THEATRE, PRESTON
 
2nd October 2001
 
It's not just youth that's wasted on the young if this Shakespeare 4 Kidz production is anything to go by.
True the youthful audience will have you look anew at much of the play's content, but it still comforting to know just how old-fashioned they can be when it comes to "coohing" at an on-stage snog for instance.

Then again audience participation counts for a lot with this company, essentially firing up their performance to the height of pure panto, and honouring the fact that all Shakespeare's cross-dressing confusion lends itself rather well to the principal boy protocol anyway.

Surfeit

Many of the key speeches remain almost intact. And if you don't remember all the songs from the original, then more Fool you!

Music provides much of the food, and fun, in the love story, and the thirteen-strong cast play on it to the point of surfeit.

I ask you, who could resist going from Bard to verse with Malvolio (Alan Clarke) singing "I cut the mustard, dressed as custard"? It's no cut-price production either, already one month into a six month national tour. There's more scene changes than you'll see at Stratford.

Whether it's entry-level Shakespeare you want, or just a good old-fashioned night of theatrical fun, check out the delerium in Illyria for the rest of this week.

And roll on Macbeth the Musical, please!