Twelfth Night: humanity and humour served up with comic relish in “outstanding” production

The festive season came early at QE this year, with the production of Twelfth Night for the Shakespeare Schools Festival bringing mirth, merriment and a strong measure of tenderness to the stage.

Two after-school performances of the romantic comedy in the School’s Robert Dudley Studio were followed by the main festival event at the Arts Depot in Finchley.

The play derives its name from the day before Epiphany (6 January); Shakespeare wrote it as an entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. It is the favourite Shakespearean comedy of Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement) Crispin Bonham-Carter, a former professional actor who once played Twelfth Night’s Sir Toby Belch at the Edinburgh Fringe.

He hailed “another outstanding QE Shakespeare production” from the senior school cast and their director, Penny Gkritzapi. “Our production of Twelfth Night was a musical reminder that the season of good cheer is about to be ‘thrust upon us’, said Mr Bonham-Carter.

“The play is a wonderful reminder (especially for all our high-achieving young men) that however important it is to be organised and sensible, we must never forget our humanity, our humour and our need for a good party!

“Some of these senior boys have acted in QE plays since Year 8, and it is fantastic to see how they have come on over the years.

“Year 12’s Nittant Moudgil and Bharath Jayakumar, of Year 10, played alarmingly good drunkards while Felix Calder (Year 13) and Daniel Kollo (Year 12) perfectly caught the frustrated longing of Orsino and Olivia. Namish Thakur wore Malvolio’s yellow stockings (and painful cross-gartering) with comic relish. Meanwhile his fellow Year 11 pupil, Akshay Shah, was brilliantly convincing as the scheming Maria, holding it all together. The gentle heart of this tender play was beautifully captured by Year 13 student Suhaas Sabella’s sweet Viola.”

Suhaas himself described performing in Twelfth Night as “one of my pinnacle moments in my time at QE”. He added: “Acting as Viola being disguised as Cesario pushed me out of my comfort zone, but it was incredibly exciting to take on a new role and get a fresh perspective.”

The Shakespeare Schools Festival involves abridged versions of Shakespeare’s plays. QE performed alongside other schools at the Artsdepot.

Final-year pupil Felix said: “A 30-minute abridgement of a script is really hard to work with, but with the help of our wonderful director, we were really able to bring out the best moments in this play. In my six years of doing QE drama I’ve made countless amazing memories and friends, and I have no doubt I will remember this play and all the other ones for the rest of my life!”

Akshay Shah, too, paid tribute to the director, Ms Gkritzapi. Originally from Athens, she has been based in London for more than a decade. She has written and directed performances at Southwark Playhouse, Park Theatre and Riverside Studios. She is the founder of Paradigm Productions, the resident company at The Drayton Arms Theatre.

Akshay said: “With Twelfth Night, I was able to take on a challenge with some of my closest friends, about one of my favourite plays. It was an incredible experience to be a part of, and I learned so much from the cast, our director and so many more people.”

The play’s music was composed and performed by: Akshay Shah; by Noah Green, of Year 10; and by Kelvin Chen, of Year 11.

Famous quotations

Twelfth Night is replete with sayings that have become famous. Here are just a few:

• If music be the food of love, play on.
• What country, friends, is this?
• I was adored once too.
• Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.
• I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.

Click on the thumbnails to view the images.