Twelfth Night

The title of Shakespeare's comedy of revelations refers to the Christian feast of the Epiphany which closes the Christmas season, so director Kenneth Branagh's decision to set his 1987 Renaissance Theatre Company staging of the play in a very snowy Illyria (featuring a somewhat anomalous-looking late 19th-century English country house) seems defensible. Visually, in fact, this 1988 Thames Television taping of the original production has a delicate, airy grace that, as Branagh remarks in the recent interview included as a bonus on this DVD, seems almost Chekhovian. Purists may be upset by the reversal of the first two scenes and judicious cuts throughout, but the alterations are of less importance than the fact that, as usual, the cruel treatment of Malvolio by Sir Toby and his confederates rather overshadows the romantic complications swirling around the oft-confused shipwrecked twins. Branagh himself does not appear, but the cast acquit themselves well under his direction, and Christopher Ravenscroft, who plays Orsino, actually bears a striking resemblance to Branagh. Incidentally, one of Feste's songs is based on a melody by Paul McCartney, while the rest of the background score is by Patrick Doyle, who has since become a major film music composer. A good complement to the Trevor Nunn feature film version of Twelfth Night (newly re-released on DVD, after being long out-of-print), this is recommended. (F. Swietek)