Twelfth Night or What You Will – Shakespeare’s Globe

Last Updated on August 20, 2025

This Carnival Twelfth Night is Frothy Fun

3.5 out of 5.0 stars

On the south bank of the Thames, Shakespeare’s Globe offers a living reminder of how theatre once thrived in London. The reconstructed playhouse, a short walk from the site of Shakespeare’s original theatre, channels the noisy, communal atmosphere of the 16th century. Groundlings stand under the open sky, actors pitch their voices into the crowd, and the interplay between stage and audience creates a shared energy. Shakespeare’s works were written for precisely this environment to be experienced as much as performed, and the Globe makes that spirit tangible, with actors drawing spectators into the action, sometimes even onto the stage.

Last night’s new production of Twelfth Night, directed by Robin Belfield, embraced that sense of immediacy. The play itself lends itself well: a tangle of disguises, misplaced affections, and comic reversals that balance revelry with moments of melancholy. Viola, shipwrecked and separated from her twin Sebastian, disguises herself as a man named Cesario, only to become entangled in a triangle of confused desires. The duke loves Olivia, Olivia loves Cesario, and Viola herself secretly longs for the duke. Around this, Shakespeare weaves drunken antics, sharp wit, and a carnival-like rhythm that Belfield’s production leaned into with pace and vigour.

Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ gave a thoughtful performance as Viola, playing her with quiet intelligence and emotional depth. As Cesario, she wore an androgynous African outfit, her early transformation marked by small details, a braid or two removed, a shift in posture there. Her performance traced the character’s shifting roles with subtlety, from grieving sister to awkward page to an unwilling object of Olivia’s affection.

Costume design was used with care to distinguish characters. Viola’s twin Sebastian, played by Kwami Odoom, wore a near-identical outfit but with a sweeping cloak and purple Converse trainers in place of green. The detail underlined their likeness while allowing the audience to read them apart against a backdrop of more traditionally medieval attire.

Laura Hanna’s Olivia moved convincingly from solemn mourning to sudden infatuation. Clad in a shimmering gold gown that conveyed both authority and allure, she charted Olivia’s change of heart with clarity, bringing warmth and assurance to her scenes.

As Feste, Jos Vantyler stood out with sharp delivery and strong vocals. His Fool was more than comic relief: wry, perceptive, and quietly grounded, he highlighted the play’s undercurrent of truth-telling amid the disguises and delusions.

Pierce Quigley’s Malvolio, by contrast, was pompous, severe and restrained until his downfall. His descent into humiliation, strutting in yellow stockings, cross-gartered and grinning in misplaced hope, was played as both comic and deeply pitiable. The famous line from the forged letter, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em,” resonated through his performance as a marker of ambition and folly. His bitter exit, vowing revenge, undercut the surrounding celebrations and reminded the audience of the play’s darker themes.

This production leaned heavily into spectacle, music, and humour. At times, the carnival atmosphere driven by a lively band of percussion, brass, wind, guitar, and banjo risked overshadowing some of the subtler speeches, particularly in the early scenes. With all its excesses, it captured the play’s festive heart perhaps at the cost of some of the more serious messages. Fast-paced, eclectic, and visually bold, Belfield’s Twelfth Night offered an evening rich in entertainment and one that, if nothing else, should inspire audiences to enjoy Shakespeare.

Twelfth Night is currently showing at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

The Globe,
21 New Globe Walk,
Bankside
London, SE1 9DT

Tickets for Twelfth Night are available here.

Run time: 2 hours 30 minutes, including a 20-minute interval

This production runs from 19th August to 25 October 2025

Check for more theatre previews on Bankside and The South Bank.

We also recommend Brigadoon, currently showing at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre